Blaze Of Glory
by Chronsse
Summary: After taking a nasty blow to the head, Swindle's processor becomes a bit scrambled. And Onslaught isn't so sure he likes the attitude that he develops. Especially when it happens in the middle of battles. Amusing as it may be. They need a cure...
1. Headshot

_Click_

Swindle didn't have time to react to the click, nor the sudden pressure against the back of his helm. He flinched, involuntarily and the shot missed the target, luckily failing in off-lining him. It did, however, still badly damage his helm, and the attacked left him limp and sparking on the ground, struggling to keep his processor from forcing him into stasis lock. A stasis lock the damage wouldn't allow him to wake from. It came so swiftly, happened so fast and hurt so much he couldn't even scream. His voice lost, simply crackling into static as he opened his mouth in silent screams of pain.

It also left him unable to cal for help. Therefor he was practically already left for dead. Sparks shooting from the possible hole in his head - he couldn't quite see and was pretty sure he didn't _want _to see - his thoughts scrambled and multiple signals being sent throughout his body against his will, causing involuntary spasms and twitches. His optics shuttered on and off at random, hand twitching, moving here and there, nearly pushing himself off the ground at some point before they flinched again and he fell. The damage gave off sparks, a lot of sparks, which eventually - much to his despair as he managed to gather enough to be aware - set the surrounding grass on fire.

Oh great, not only had he lost control over almost his entire body and half of his processor, now he was going to be burned alive. He began to wonder which would actually kill him first. And which he would honestly prefer. He decided that - honestly - he'd prefer to have not gotten into this sort of situation at all, and had simply bailed on everyone like he usually did. Figures the one day he actually decides to have his "Brothers'" backs, he gets off-lined. In two ways. Sense the shot to the head was already causing circuits to fry.

In fact, why is he still aware? He'd prefer not to be. Honestly he would.

He began to wonder if maybe Primus would shine some light on him and allow his comm. to work. Trying, he found out that, no, Primus didn't like him. And thus, was greedy and decided 'No light fer Swindler'. The bastard. Swindle managed a groan as his arm twisted in a painful position on account of his glitching processor, he began to wonder if his joints would even allowed it to twist to the side and under, crossing over his back from where he lay face-first in the dirt. He doubted it. It wouldn't be hurting so slaggin' much if it did.

Then again, his processor may have shorted his pain sensors. It would explain the pain in his legs, he was pretty sure he hadn't damaged his legs. At least...he though. Finally - though he had this feeling he probably shoulder - he looked down to his legs. Optics widened, he would have screamed if he had control over his vocals. In fact, how did he have control over his head and nothing else? He'd probably loose that too. Shouldn't it have been the first thing, though? Oh whatever.

The important thing at the moment is that his legs appear to of caught fire.

Time to panic. Too late, already panicking. Though he didn't have control over any of his body now - even the head - thus that wasn't quite visible. He struggled to control something, _anything_, but failed. Until finally his body halted it's spasm, it's flinching, everything. And went completely limp. Oh great, yeah, that's _so _much better. Well...at least he isn't randomly hitting or hurting himself by accident on account of it.

Of course it also meant he had both feet in the scrap yard now.

Judging by the fact he didn't feel pain anymore, he began to guess that perhaps his pain sensors had gone offline as well. At least his optics were staying powered up now, flicking on and off was just downright annoying. Though, he wasn't quite sure he enjoyed the view. Fire surrounding him, inching closer and closer to his faceplate. No, quite sure he doesn't enjoy the view. Not at all. In fact, why did Primus hate him enough to stop when his optics were online rather than off?

As if to spite him, his optics suddenly went offline.

Surrounded by darkness, unable to see what was going on around him now. Oh, panic attack eminent. Take it back, take it back! He prefers being able to see what's going on! Online! Stupid optics! Online! If he could scream he would, just to curse out everything and everyone that came to his currently glitching processor. Starting with Primus, why did he hate him? Huh? What did Swindle ever do to him? What could he do to him? Did everyone - including Primus - just have it out for him? And Onslaught! It's his damn fault Swindle's even in this mess! Giving him orders to play decoy, he shouldn't have agreed. Leaving him out here with Brawl as back-up! He should have known Brawl would leave him, he could have given him Vortex at least! Vortex kind of likes him. Kinda. He wouldn't have left.

...Probably...

And speaking of Brawl! The aft had nearly shot him - _twice _- while shooting at Autobots! And just snickered about it! Then he had the _"brilliant idea" _to chase after one of the fleeing Autobots. Now likely in a bind himself. Or maybe offline in a ditch. It was First Aid he had chased after, and everyone knows how protective that medic's "family" is of him. Heck, if he crossed Ratchet's path he'd probably be dismantled for even _thinking _of hurting the kid!

Then, of course, there is Vortex. Who...well actually Vortex had yet to do anything today to piss him off. He had slept up until they got ordered to get ready to go fight. Though Swindle _did _have to drag him out of the berth, which had gotten him slapped in the face, and used as a _teddy bear_ by the barley conscious Helicopter-former. So, frag Vortex for being lazy, hitting him, then snuggling him. And not waking up until Onslaught finally came in to find Swindle pinned under the Helicopter screaming for help.

And even _that _didn't wake him!

And lastly, Blast Off! Darn him for giving Onslaught the idea of pairing him with Brawl because he needed Vortex for an "aerial assault" to cause a "distraction". So yes, they had two distractions apparently. That makes sense. Total sense. Not like it left Onslaught to take advantage of the Distraction all by himself or anything, right?

Right. Bunch of idiots. Probably just lied to get him stuck with Brawl, knowing he would ditch him and leave him to get off-lined or something. By himself.

Alone.

Completely alone...

Always alone, it seemed. He seemed to never be there for his brothers, nor they for him. He began to tell himself he was never there for them because they weren't for him, but stopped himself. He knew it wasn't true. They used to be there for him, when he needed them the most. But he betrayed what little bit of trust they had. And it wasn't much, but it was still there. Until he sold them...why had he done that? It felt like instinct at the time, but was it really? It was just greed, wasn't it? Why so greedy? Why? He just couldn't control it...and even he hated himself for that. Even he hated himself for selling his family.

Swindle was snapped out of his thoughts as his optics suddenly powered back up. He would have yelped were he able, as he came face-to-face with the Autobot medic, Ratchet. Who gave him a less-than-friendly look. "Still online I see." He grumbled, Swindle would have flinched, again, _if_ he were able. Of course, he wasn't. And his vocals still refused to work. "Can't move, can you?" How did the medic expect him to reply to that? Swindle blinked a few times. Somewhat afraid to glare.

The Autobot seemed to be making repairs on him. Which meant he's most likely in Swindle's head.

Right now. At this very moment. Messing with delicate circuitry.

While he's _online_!

He could only hope that the larger mech wouldn't turn on his sensors for a while...that pain would probably be unbearable.

Slowly he wondered why the medic was repairing him, and as if he read his mind - which he might be able to do sense he's in his _head_, though Swindle was sure he isn't quite sure if that's possible - the medic replied. "It's what any good Autobot would do. And you're just a _kid_." Just a kid? Seriously? He's not _that _young! Heck, some of the Stunticons are younger than him! And he doesn't seem to have a problem shooting them down! Heck, he's even shot Swindle down a few times before! Why let the damage be done if he's just going to repair him!

Damn confusing contradicting idiotic Autobots!

All morons! Peace loving, insane, idiotic, squishy loving, irritating, loyal to a fault, sons of glitches, processor lacking, preaching, annoying, irritating- At this point in his mental rant he began to repeat himself, adding a few more curses here and there. Eventually, Ratchet grumbled and whacked him in the head, sending Swindle sitting straight up with a yelp as he held his hands over the offended area.

It took him a whole five minutes to realize he was able to move again.

He quickly rounded, pointing his weapon at Ratchet, only to realize it had been prized from his arm and now lay at the medics side. Opposite of him. Ratchet - in all his bemused glory - simply glared for a moment. "Don't move around too much or you're going to glitch again. I suggest calling for help, if they are willing to save your sorry aft." Ratchet reached for his tools, setting them back into his medical kit and standing. He glared at the Combaticon.

"Try not to go into recharge until you're processor is fully repaired." He turned and began walking away, leaving Swindle's weapon on the ground. Not willing to so much as blink until the medic was gone, Swindle simply stared as the medic walked away, back towards him. As if he didn't considering Swindle a threat. Which he probably didn't. And honestly, Swindle didn't really care at the moment.

His comm. beeped, startling him into a jump. He carefully activated it, and watched as Onslaught appeared on screen. Seemingly ready to lecture him.

"Swindle! Where are you, I've been trying to comm. you for-" Onslaught stopped, staring at Swindle through the screen. Swindle would of asked what was the matter, if his head wasn't beginning to ache as a reminder. So Ratchet _had _turned his sensors back on! Damn medic...

"What happened?" If Swindle didn't know any better, and didn't have a headache worthy of Prime, he probably would had made some sarcastic remark. And probably would have found the strange tone in Onslaught's voice - resembling that of worry - surprising. But he did have a headache, and didn't quite care enough to pay attention to tones of voices that made the pain worse.

"Got shot. In the head. About to go into stasis, I thi-i-n-n-k." Oh great, his voice is starting to fritz again. Damn, those repairs didn't last long. Did that Autobot even know what he was doing? Warning started popping up, too many at a time, making his headache worse. He canceled all out and blocked any more from coming in. Headache too bad to read them anyways. Onslaught began to panic on his end, but didn't let it show.

"Where are you at?"

Swindle wanted to glare, oh he so did. But he couldn't manage it.

"Same place I was at the beginning of the battle." He managed, though it sounded more like he groaned the reply, rather than just spoke it. "Wait, what? Isn't Brawl there with-" "Of course he ain't!" Swindle flinched slightly as Vortex yelled over the comm. Visible standing behind and somewhere off to Onslaught's right side. "He never sticks around with Swindle! I wouldn't be surprised if that hole in 'is head was _caused _by Brawl, really."

He couldn't quite tell if Vortex was angry or not. He sounded like he might be angry, or choking down giggles. It's kind of hard to tell when it's Vortex. He may have been doing both. Choking down angry giggles? Wait, what? That's...that's not even...his processor is completely starting to fry.

"Ons, I think my logic chips are starting to crash...or glitch...or melt from the heat...or something..." He twitched, and watched as Onslaught relaying orders, most of which Swindle didn't catch. Something about not moving, holding something, finding something, and not going into recharge or something. A lot of somethings. Swindle twitched again at the buzzing sound as Onslaught ended the transmission.

Only one, logical thought went through Swindle's processor.

_I hope they find me soon._

That, and he finally began to wonder how someone managed to sneak up and shoot him in the head as he stood in the middle of an _open field_.

He was never going to live this down.

_Ever._

_

* * *

_

**Authors Notes: **To be continued! In the next chapter! Poor Swindle, he's my favorite character, really. Well, one of them. Practically top of the list! Which is why I decided to torture him in this fic. I torture the characters I love, it seems. Don't worry, things get better. At least, I hope they do. It all depends, really.

There is a surprise next chapter, though! So stay tuned. Also, I was thinking about going with Wheeljack instead of Ratchet, but I figured Wheeljack may be a little less suited to get Swindle up and running temporarily. He might have blown him up. Or Swindle might have thought he would. It might have been funny to scare Swindle like that, but I think I tortured him enough.

Angst.

Also, why no review and tell me some characters you'd like to see in later chapters? I'm a bit stuck on who I want to show up. Can be Autobots, Decepticons, and anything in between!

**Disclaimer: **Transformers does not belong to me, nor do any of it's characters.


	2. Clueless

To say Onslaught was worried would have been a lie. The Combaticon Commander had long ceased his worrying. Because, obviously, panicking worked better at getting medics to work _faster_. Plus Vortex kind of made him paranoid. Naming of tones of random facts about anything and everything that could and possibly would go wrong with Swindle during, before, or after repairs. He'd even gone so far as to punch the Copter after he didn't shut up upon being told to do so.

Vortex now sat off in some far corner of the field nursing a possibly broken nose.

Onslaught probably shouldn't have hit him that hard, but it did manage to take off some of the stress. Which kind of made him want to punch someone else. But he refrained from it. Though if Brawl ever decided to show up at their little "camp site", he would be none the happier to punch him. Repeatedly. Especially sense his _exact _orders were to _stay with Swindle_. As everyone's orders were to stay with their teammate.

Everyone but Onslaught, who lacked both a teammate and the need to fallow his own orders. He's the Leader, he doesn't have to fallow his own orders. He just gives them. And beats the Energon an' Oil out of ya if you disobey them. Or at least scolds. He's very good at scolding and lecturing. Usually doing both at the same time, whether meaning to or not. He's just that good. Apparently good at panicking too, because Hook had proceeded to stop working and glare at him.

If looks could kill, he'd be dead. The glare made him figure Hook was trying to scare him off, though. Wasn't going to work. He isn't going anywhere until he knows they aren't going to do anything funny to Swindle. Then he _still _won't go anywhere. Nowhere to go anyways. Just miles and miles, acres and acres of nice, green, open field. In fact...how had Swindle gotten shot? Open field meant no place to hide. And to get him in the head like that, they would of had to sneak up on him.

Probably wasn't paying attention. Certainly going to get a lecture on that when he's up and about.

If he ever wakes up...

Onslaught began to pace and panic again at the thought of Swindle never waking up, he had just barley managed to stay awake until he and Vortex got to him. He had gone into stasis the moment they arrived, falling right into Vortex, who luckily had the decency to actually catch - rather than watch drop - the poor mech. Vortex sort of panicked, thinking he had off-lined suddenly upon their arrival. And continued to do so until Swindle groaned in pain.

_That _was when Vortex dropped him, screeching like a little human girl and jumping in the air. Luckily Onslaught had been standing right beside him, and managed to catch Swindle, though he also got a thigh full of rotor when Vortex jumped. Luckily thigh, it was oh-so close to hitting him in the aft. Not even funny. Though if Swindle had been awake - and didn't have a huge gaping hole in his head - he probably would have laughed.

Which made Onslaught frown, already missing that laugh of Swindle's. That child-like, innocent yet so not laugh. He didn't even laugh, really. More like a string of giggles if anything. Laughing wasn't Swindle. Giggle fits are.

Onslaught paused, was he really becoming panicked and paranoid enough to already miss Swindle's laughing, even at his expense? Damn Vortex and his happily naming of random facts that often fallowed after a damaged processor.

"Ons, panicking isn' gonna make him better." Came Vortex's stuffy voice from somewhere behind him, obviously holding a hand over his nose judging from how his voice sounded. Similar to that of a human with a cold. Onslaught turned to look at Vortex, who now sat beside Blast Off a few good feet from him, Swindle, and what few Constructicons were here at the moment. Blast Off had either stared at Swindle, or the ground when seeing Swindle became too much. And as for the moment, seemed to be staring at the ground. Vortex sat beside him, pouting with both hands over his nose.

Staring for a moment, Onslaught sighed and turned back to see Hook standing from Swindle, wiping his hands with a cloth.

"He's stable, repairs are as good as I can manage. Not much else we can do aside from fix his helm, will do that when he wakes up. For now...just got to hope he wakes up." Hook frowned and looked over the three. Onslaught looked relieved, along with the other two. But quickly caught onto the expression. "What?" He demanded as Hook frowned, looking at them with a tiny thread of pity.

"Well, it may or may not be a good thing..." Hook paused, as everyone looked to him. "But once he wakes up he may have a few...problems."

"What kind of problems!" The three cried in unison, voices a mess of confusion, fear, worry, and anger. Hook cycled air through his vents, sighing. "Well it depends. He could have memory problems, though his memory core wasn't damaged so that's unlikely. His personality component was damaged though...I managed to fix it...but it isn't perfect. His personality may contain a few...glitches. He may act completely different from usual. He may not. Only time will tell. Aside from that, not much else was damaged. But he will have a bit of trouble talking...his voice modulator was a bit damaged. And the damage done to his legs will probably leave an ache for a while, even after repairs. Especially his right leg, one of the cables snapped. He'll have a limp until I can replace it." Hook trailed off after that, getting stares from the three.

Onslaught looked about ready to tear into him, but someone he had been waiting for chose that exact moment to arrive.

"Yo, you guys see those Autobots! Didn't know medics could run that fast..." Brawl sauntered onto the scene, seemingly fine. A few scrapes, burns, and bruises. But nothing serious. Onslaught instantly turned all attention to him.

Brawl was none the wiser as he stroke over, peering down at Swindle, he turned to Vortex who was giving him an unreadable expression. "What happened to _him_?" He asked with a smirk. "Did he try and screw someone over again? Idiot." He peered back down at the smaller member of their group, already coming up with tons of different things he could have done to get a huge hole in his head. Starting to regret leaving, he wouldn't have minded seeing that. Or what weapon was used.

Or who actually managed to sneak up and shoot him in the head in an open field.

Probably that one Autobot - Mirage - who can turn himself invisible at will. What he wouldn't give to have one of those gizmos himself, it's be fun to be able to turn invisible. Imagine all of the Energon he could steal without anyone noticing! He could always blame it on Swindle later. Nah, Swindle might shoot him again if he does...like the last time he blamed something on him. Perhaps it wasn't his best idea to anger the mech with the Scatter Blaster. Swindle had even lectured him on how he 'Gets into enough trouble' without help or blame for something he _didn't _do.

Speaking of which, no one had told him what happened to the little guy yet.

Looking to Vortex, he expected to glare and see if that would work. But Vortex had taken up glaring at the ground for some reason, just as Blast Off - who sat beside him - took up staring at Swindle. With a huff, he turned to ask Onslaught. Surely he would know, being Leader and all. Plus if they were here it likely meant he called for help, which likely meant it was Onslaught he called. Sense it's always Onslaught who Swindle goes crying to.

_Always_.

He turned to ask Onslaught what happened, but upon getting their Leader within his sights, he came face-to-face with his Stun Gun. Ironic, considering he was _just _thinking about how blaming things on Swindle got him coming face-to-face with a Scatter Blaster. Perhaps he should have done as the humans say and "Knocked on wood". Too bad there isn't much wood around here. If any wood around here. But that's not the point. The point is why is their normally _"calm" _Commander holding a gun to his head?

Perhaps he should ask? But then again, that expression - the obviously invisible one he could sense hidden behind that mask, duh - clearly read "Ask any stupid questions and I'll shoot your face". Scatter Blaster or Stun Gun...wonder which hurts worse. Brawl became quite sure he didn't want to know. In fact, he's pretty sure even blinking would get him shot. Not that he could actually _blink _like an Organic...but...anyways. No time to start thinking about how he can't technically _blink_. Stay on track.

...Screw it. "Why are you holdin' a gun to my head?"

_Click_

Oops.

* * *

**Authors Notes: **Yes well, remember how I said I have a surprise for you this Chapter? I meant next chapter. Heh, sorry! This one wrote itself and isn't exactly how I planned. It's more so telling how Onslaught acts in this Fanfic and that Brawl is sort of an aft. He cares, though! I'm sure...he just has a funny way of showing it. Were Vortex sulks and Onslaught panics, Blast Off spaces out and Brawl seems indifferent to it all! You'll learn of Swindle's fate next chapter. Sorry this one wasn't as detailed as the last or anything. It sort of seems rushed, huh? Next chapter will be better, hopefully!

**Disclaimer: **Transformers does not belong to me, nor do any of it's Characters.


	3. Home Brew

What was is Onslaught used to say? Don't turn you back on your Enemy? Does it count if your Enemy turns out to always be at your back? Or if they were there in the first place and you just didn't notice? Despite being in an open range, with a good view of your surrounding?

Swindle groaned, he could quite clearly tell someone was working on his head mere moments ago, he's been conscious for a good few minutes now, after all. Isn't his fault his body doesn't want to move, his optics don't want to power up. Just like it wasn't his fault he got distracted by a pretty little _flower. _No, that was. How did that happen exactly? Being pretty much the smartest of your brothers doesn't matter if you have a short attention span for odd things. Like Flowers that have a color resembling that of Energon. That's what you get for sending out a Combaticon who just so happened to of not eaten in the past few days because some annoying flyers keeps stealing his rations...

Though no one quite knew about that either...so...that isn't anyone's fault but his own.

And the flyers.

In fact, that's probably why he's too tired to even move. He's been low on Energon for a day or so now because of that fact. The pain in his head just made him sort of forget...probably. Then again being the smaller, more fuel efficient of his group...he probably got in over his head without realizing. Sense he doesn't need much to stay Energized. So that was his fault too. Thinking he could last a few days without even a single drop of Energon. Perhaps he should have taken up Vortex on his offer the other day, when the Copter-Former offered him some high grade.

Though high grade on an empty tank might have been a bad idea...

Maybe he should be glad he didn't. But then again if he had gotten "sick" he probably wouldn't be on this mission-oh who he's kidding, of course he would. They wouldn't let him stay from a mission because of a "tummy ache". No, they probably would have just laughed at him, punched him in the gut to make a point, then tossed him out into the ocean to swim to shore and walk here instead of coming with his Gestalt.

Which wouldn't have been as much fun, because if he hadn't been with his brother he wouldn't of been able to irritate Blast Off with Vortex. Which was fun. Even after they both got whacked in the head by Onslaught then scolded for teasing. It was still fun. Especially sense they both made a bet on how long it would take to make Onslaught snicker or giggle at them for it. Onslaught even joined in, betting on himself saying he wouldn't. Vortex said it would take at least half the flight. Swindle made a bet saying it would take little over half the flight.

Onslaught won. The cheater.

Half their Energon rations went down the drain, Swindle couldn't even sweet talk his way out of it. Neither could Vortex, though it seemed more like a beg and plea rather than a sweet talk. Most know just how hungry Vortex gets, he can take his weight in Energon. Most people don't dare to see what happens if one gets between Vortex and his food. Even Swindle didn't dare, and he had a way of snatching peoples Energon.

Mainly Brawl though, but also mainly because Brawl tends to snatch his too.

In fact, come to think of it, Vortex is the only he's never stolen Energon from. Swindle's even managed to snatch some of Megatron's secret stash. Won't touch the stuff now, man that stuff is strong. He was sick for _weeks_, pretty sure he was drunk off it that long too. He also got scolded, about twice...a day...for the amount of time he stayed sick off the stuff. Vortex laughed at him and called him a light weight until he had some himself.

At least he didn't suffer alone.

Blast Off gave it one look and said "No". Brawl drank it, purged his tanks a few times, then was fine. Which served to _really _tick off Swindle and Vortex. Onslaught drunk some, not much.

It didn't effect him. At least not in a way that he let show. He did become a little less..._creative _and logical in his plans for a while though. And slept more often. A lot more often, actually. Vortex claimed to of found him conked out on the makeshift couch in their room once. Though whether that's true or not, no one knows. Considering he had also fallen asleep during a training session, no one really doubted it.

So "special" high grade and Onslaught equals a narcoleptic Leader.

How Megatron managed to drink it and be perfectly fine? No one knows. Though the grins they got from their "Glorious" Decepticon Leader led them to believe they may have gotten a hold of a decoy stash made especially for any who would dare to think they could steal his high grade without consequences. Swindle learned his lesson. Besides...

Starscream's stash tastes better. And doesn't make them fall asleep. Plus, he doesn't seem to really care as long as you don't steal it _all_, and at least leave him some. After all, he can always make more. Considering he uses regular Energon and stuff he has around to make it his own "special batch". Besides, Swindle always liked sweet Energon better than bitter. And Starscream can make some _sweet _High Grade. No one is quite sure how he does it though.

Especially sense most of what he owns is chemicals...

The bad kind.

What he would give to have some of that Energon right now, though. Or any Energon really. Damn, don't realize how hungry you are until you're about to die because of it. Okay, so maybe he's being a bit over dramatic, surely if he was so low on Energon he couldn't move, he's be in stasis right now instead of awake, aware, and unable to move. Hook probably just screwed up and missed something. Again. Like when Vortex got his arm torn off by Sideswipe in their last battle. Which Vortex didn't seem to mind much, considering he just picked up the disembodied limb and started beating him with it. Only to later have Hook attach it on wrong, mess up his circuitry and wire it all wrong. Which resulted in him moving a leg when he wanted to move an arm, of his clenching his dental when he tried to clench a fist. Not to mention the arm was kind of on _sideways_. Not backwards, but _sideways_!

Except in this case he probably wired it so wrong it ended with him not being able to move at all. And Swindle hadn't lost any limbs. At least...he hopes he hadn't.

Maybe a bit more concentration would work? He could feel himself frown now, well...lips are movable! That's a...good start. Okay...something on his face is movable, perhaps he could power on his optics now. He began to concentrate solely on powering up his optics. He could feel the faint feeling of electricity through his circuits as he gave the command for them to come online.

After moments of trying, they finally flickered to life, and slowly powered on. He found himself staring up at the dark star filled sky. _Pretty_. He tried focusing a bit more on his surrounding, he could see Hook on one side from the corner of his optics. And Onslaught - well Onslaught's backside really - out another corner. Sitting off to the side a bit, he could nearly see Blast Off and Vortex. Blast Off currently appeared to be staring at the ground, and Vortex looking off in Onslaught's direction. He caught movement from one side, and looked up to see Hook hovering over him.

Oh, not a face he wanted to see so soon, turn back to looking at Blast Off and Vortex! Blast off and Vortex!

"He's awake." Hook called out, head tilting up and giving Swindle a nice view of his chin. He looked in Onslaught's direction. "Really?" Vortex called from the side, and before Swindle could even realize he moved, he was at his side and leaning over him, having pushed Hook off to the side. Who grunted and crossed his arms, giving Vortex a disapproving shake of the head.

Of course, Vortex had no love for personal space and now leaned far too close to Swindle's face for his comfort, asking questions upon questions.

"Vor-r-tex..." Swindle groaned, tilting his head to the side. "Yo-o-ou st-i-ink-k." A pause in the questions, Vortex stared at him for a moment before chuckling. "What?" He managed while trying to stifle his chuckling. "You got a hole in your head and you're worried about how I _smell_?" He began cackling, the type that Swindle would usually scoot away from him for. But being on the ground, with a nearly immobile body...he couldn't quite do that. Then again, it probably meant Vortex was worried. He tended to hide his emotions with his creepy laughter, everyone knows that. He simply stared at the copter until Blast Off came into view, looking him over.

"How do you feel?" The shuttle asked. Well...that's odd. He could have sworn Blast Off just asked him how he felt. Circuits must be frizzing again. "Li-ike-ke I go-o-ot a ho-ole in m-yy he-ea-e-ead." Swindle replied, forcing a grin as he looked up at the shuttle. Blast Off scoffed, reached down and carefully turned Swindle's head so the hole was in his view. He looked at it for a moment, Swindle feeling more and more nervous about that fact. After all...they could oh-so easily offline him right now. Just stick a finger in his head an _click_, brain dead.

Blast Off removed his hand, and Swindle's head fell back into it's former position. "You'll be fine. Not much in there _important _to damage anyway." And with that, Blast Off went back to where he was and plopped down on the ground. Swindle just smiled and shook his head lightly, as best he could without hurting himself. Vortex quit his cackling and turned to look in Onslaught's direction. Probably didn't notice when Hook said he was online. Or felt bad or something. Or perhaps lecturing Brawl for leaving him. Though if he was, Brawl seems to be a bit out of Swindle's field of vision.

"Ons! Quit killing Brawl and come over here, Swindle's awake! Told you that you were panicking for nothin'!"

Or killing Brawl and panicking...

Wait _what?_

Swindle strained to see over to them, he attempted to sit up. Vortex, noticing this, wrapped an arm around his back and helped, then turned him - nearly dragging him onto his lap - so he could see the two formally unseen two. And there stood Onslaught, hands on Brawl's shoulders as he forced the mech to lean back a bit, glaring him down. Brawl frowned, as Onslaught seemingly continued to yell at him about something. Completely ignoring Vortex's calling to him, or the fact Swindle was now awake and staring right at them.

Though seeing Onslaught scold Brawl, and Brawl make such an expression...it made Swindle feel giddy for some reason. He noticed the gun in one of Onslaught's hands, which seemed positioned so he could hold onto Brawl's shoulders, _and _point the gun at his head at the same time. Giddy!

Really, really giddy. He started giggling lightly, he didn't quite think anything of it. Vortex smiled as he watched the two, hands on Swindle's shoulders to keep him in an upright position. Though even Vortex was starting to give him a strange look when Swindle continued to giggle, the sound becoming louder and louder. He continued to do so, until breaking out into a giggle fit - which now had everyone staring at him, Onslaught having stopped scolding Brawl as they two now stared at him with wide optics. Swindle giggling, loudly, was rare on it's own. But giggling while he had a hole in his head, and at something that he would normally smirk and make fun of rather than giggle...?

Swindle continued to giggle uncontrollably, which was a cause for worry, even for himself. He managed to stifle it down into a light snicker, up until Vortex chuckled strangely. Leaning forward, the Helicopter asked what was on everyone's mind.

"You alright there, Swin?"

* * *

**Authors Notes: **Surprise! Can you guess what the surprise is? No? Well you'll know better in the next chapter. Next chapter contains fluff! Family/Brotherly fluff. Just wait and see. This become stranger as well, characters will become more and more OOC. Especially Starscream, who will be appearing soon enough.

**Disclaimer: **Transformers does not belong to me, nor do any of it's Characters.


	4. Brotherly Love

Swindle felt everyone turn their optics on him, and he hated it. Normally he wouldn't mind, but currently he felt less than sane, especially after the giggle fit he just had...for no apparent reason. His head felt weird, and his emotions felt like a big mesh. As if they were changing too quickly for his body to react. He felt gleeful, than angry, than sad, giddy, depressed, and so on. All changing to fast for him to physically react. Though not he'd become quite sure that panic was starting to show more somewhere deep in that sea of swirling emotions. Also, he had this nagging in the back of his processor that told him that all this is somehow Hook's fault.

But then again, every time he gets repaired and something goes awry he blames the medic. Except for when Starscream fixes him. Because if somethings wrong and he blames Starscream, and the Seeker finds out. He'll make sure to make something go wrong next time he managed to get a hold of you. Some terribly, terribly wrong, that makes you wish you had just kept your mouth closed.

That or he refuses to repair you, even if he's the only one who would know how.

Vortex learned that the hard way, and had the decency to spread the word. Either way, he's being stared at. And it's making him uncomfortable.

"Hook?" Onslaught broke the silence, turning and looking at the Constructicon "medic", who shrugged. "I thought you said his personality chip would be weird, not his emotion chip." Blast Off spoke from somewhere now behind Swindle. There was a pause, in which Hook grew a thoughtful expression. He finally looked up, giving Swindle a serious look as he stared at the smaller 'Con. "What's the difference?" He asked, completely honest.

Everyone simply stared at him, for a long, long time. Until Onslaught lifted his palm to his face, and groaned.

"Oh great. Now we're going to have an overly emotional swindler. That won't mess with his job. Not at _all_." You know things are bad when Onslaught's talking like _that_. Being sarcastic, face palming, groaning, and clenching his fist like he's about ready to punch the next thing that _moves_. Which was Swindle, who shifted uncomfortably. Luckily he was spared from being hit.

But Onslaught turned on Brawl and started yelling at him.

Swindle made a _squeaking _sound and backed up into Vortex, who reacted by pulling Swindle into his lap, wrapping his arms around him, and using the top of the smaller Combaticon's head as a pillow, as he sat his head down and watched the two begin to argue. Swindle struggled for a moment, but went ignored by Vortex. Why him? Why did he always get used as a pillow, or an arm rest, teddy bear, decoy, someone who everyone likes picking up at random just to see if he'll make that little _"chirping" _sound he does when he's surprised.

And why is it usually Vortex who's doing it all?

Or Brawl? Though mainly Brawl just uses him as an arm rest. Or foot rest on occasion. Or shield, often picking him up and holing him at arms length in-front of him when Onslaught's about to hit him. In fact, why is he so easy to pick up? Why did _he_ have to be so small? Better yet, why was he becoming height sensitive again? Hadn't he gotten over that?

Especially sense no one teased him after he got angry, shot Brawl at the knees, and yelled; "WHO'S SHORT NOW?" after he fell on the floor.

Everyone kind of avoided him for a while after that, too.

Come to think of it, hadn't Brawl teased him again that one day before Swindle...sold them after they got defeated? Swindle frowned, leaning into Vortex a bit, who had his optics locked on Onslaught and Brawl, both still arguing. Luckily they had yet to start fighting.

Swindle frowned, thinking back to the day he had betrayed his brothers trust and sold them to a human as "Cybertronian Spare Parts", which they weren't. Though what humans don't know, won't hurt them right? Won't hurt _them_. In all honesty, when he went to his "contact", his only intention at the time was really to try and find parts to repair them. It was his only true intention at the time. He wanted his brothers back online. But when when he was told there would be a price - which was expected - he hadn't figured the man would swindle _him _into selling out his brothers. Swindle was swindled, of course he'd never admit it. So as far as anyone knew he did it all on purpose, just for the money.

Which in the end, wasn't so far from the truth.

Swindle's frowned deepened as he started to feel an overflow of emotions, consisting mainly of regret and sadness and this strange sudden desire to scream.

He didn't even notice when he started shaking, or how his lower lip suddenly started quivering. Vortex lessened his grip as he sat up, leaning forward a bit to catch a look at Swindle's face when he felt Swindle begin to shake in his arms.

He grew a panicked expression. "Onslaught!" He cried, looking up to their "Leader" pleadingly. Onslaught turned to look, catching sight of Vortex's expression - and only his, for his head slightly hid Swindle's - and frowned, tilting his head in confusion. He didn't get the chance to voice his question before something else caught his attention. He realized everyone was staring at Swindle for some reason. And he could hear this faint...sniffling sound?

Vortex suddenly sat up, revealing Swindle's face.

Onslaught began to understand why Vortex seemed so panicked.

Swindle sat there, hands to his face, a small stream of "tears" running down the sides of his face, shaking, bottom lip quivering, and look _miserable_. Brawl took notice too, staring at their youngest member slightly surprised. Not only at the fact that Swindle sat there crying in Votex's arms - who now had started rocking him back and forth and humming reassuring words to try and calm him - but at the fact that Swindle's current state...

Made him want to go over and hug him.

It made him want to _comfort him_, which in turn made Brawl feel like his logic chip had fried. It could just be from how _pathetic _and _vulnerable _his younger "brother" looked at the moment, but either way it wasn't very logical - to Brawl - to feel the need to hug him for it. Or anyone for that matter. Brawl just isn't the type of mech to care. Though he was glad that Swindle had managed to distract Onslaught, who seemed to be effected in a similar fashion...

For he's now sitting in-front of Vortex, looking slightly panicked and asking Swindle what the problem is. How he can help. If he needs anything. If something is hurting. If he should beat the slag out of Hook (who backed up slightly upon hearing that). If it was something he did. If it was something Vortex did. Or Brawl. Or Blast Off (who yelled that - clearly - it wasn't him because he's been "over here" the entire time. Meaning far enough away to of not been able to do anything to make Swindle cry). Then he proceeded to hug Swindle - as well as Vortex because of their position - and glare at Hook. Who held up his hands in mock surrender and backed off.

Brawl eventually worked up enough courage to walk over as Swindle started babbling off random things in between sobs.

He managed to catch something about when he sold them, how he didn't plan to at first and was apparently "tricked", but too embarrassed to say. How he had regretted something the moment he did it and continued to regret it, how he deserved any and everything bad that's ever happened to him - including what's happening to him now - and proceeded to name of a ton of others things he had done, or almost did, or planned on doing and apologizing for all of it.

So the typical break down of someone with a guilty conscience.

Brawl huffed, about to tune him out when he caught mention of his name, along with something about shooting.

"What?" He growled, turning to look. Swindle stiffened, staring at him for a moment. "What did you just say?" Brawl demanded again. "Nothing." Onslaught growled, glaring him down. "All he's doing at the moment is having a break down and apologizing for everything he's done." Brawl glared right back, taking a step forward. "I heard a mention of my name and shooting." He clenched his fists, turning his glare to Swindle, who stared at him for a moment.

A silence passed.

Swindle finally broke down again; "I-I'm-m s-sor-r-r-ry!" He wailed, his voice shorting a bit after that, so his words became slurred in static and sobs. Brawl frowned, pretty sure he had a few pairs of optics glaring at him now. Too many to just be members of his Gestalt. He shrank back a bit, sighed, then walked over and pushed - more so shoved, actually - Onslaught to the side, and sat in-front of Swindle. "Look, whatever it is, was, or was going to be, I forgive you." He sighed, Swindle quieting down and staring at him. He hiccuped something, sounding more like a hum. Brawl just guessed what it was. "Really...I always do." He managed the smallest of smile.

Vortex jerked back, Brawl looked up noticing a spark shooting somewhere from Swindle's injury. He didn't get a chance to question it.

Swindle suddenly tackled him, wrapping his arms around him. Brawl just froze, feeling Swindle nuzzle him. "Th-th-tha-a-ank y-y-yo-oo-ou-ou!" He exclaimed through a haze of static. Brawl - unsure of what to do - awkwardly patting him on the side of his head without the injury, lightly returned the hug. He smiled lightly, hugging him back fully, and pulling the smaller mech closer. Hugging. Isn't so bad, really...

"Hehehe~ Awwww!"

_Wasn't._

_

* * *

_**Authors Notes: **Wasn't. As in whoever "awed" ruined the moment. Ha-ha. Told you it was kind of fluffy, and Brawl felt bad. Next chapters have more humor and some more fluff, though it's from someone other than Brawl! Hope you've enjoyed the story so far, it's becoming a bit random, but that's for a reason.

**Disclaimer: **Transformers does not belong to me, nor do any it's Characters.


	5. Emotion Explosion

Swindle liked to think he isn't, wasn't, and never would be a particularly _lazy _mech. No, any and everything but that. Active, be it physically or mentally, heck even verbally. But never, ever lazy. But at the current moment, nice and relaxed, tucked safely into Vortex's arms to be carried home, he sort of felt that way. He didn't mind it, in fact he loved the fact he wasn't going to be forced to walk, drive, or possibly even fly "home" himself. After he...calmed down from his most recent "emotion explosion" as Vortex so gleefully dubbed them, and let go of Brawl after realizing he was - in fact - hugging him, Vortex had scooped Swindle up, made the crack about "emotion explosions", then announced that they should leave before Onslaught and Brawl got into another fight.

And then they were off, before anyone even had the chance to say anything. Because Vortex took off - with Swindle - forcing the others to fallow.

Speaking of Vortex - who Swindle reminded himself he is currently being carried by - he has quite a few injuries that will be needing repair. From his position held comfortably in the Copter-Formers arms, he can see quite a few already. Like that little blade looking thing, about the size of Swindle's own index finger, sticking from his neck. Did he even notice that there, yet? It looks painful, what with the Energon dripping down it, and how every time he talks or moves it shifts with a _painful __skritching _sound, that is likely the tip of it scraping against something inside his neck.

In fact, Swindle had long been resisting the urge to just reach up and yank it out, like a human would a thorn. In fact, his hands were currently shaking from all the strength he had to put in keeping them from moving up and grabbing at it. He'd even become a bit twitchy, especially sense it's _right there_! Pretty much the only thing in his view short of Vortex's chin, and occasionally his masked face when he looks down at him every now and then. So it's pretty much all he can see, that is even of mild interest.

And it's starting to irritate him. Sort of how Thundercracker has that weird urge to straighten anything that leans to the side. Or how Starscream get's twitchy when one of his Trine mates wings are crooked after repairs, and he bugs them until they let him "properly" fix them. Or how Soundwave pretty much has a break down whenever he hears country music. The list goes on and on. Damn, never realize just how many issues a faction has until you stop to name them all off...

Even Megatron has that issue that involved the color pink...

Poor Starscream found out that the hard way after Soundwave's little twin brats decided to play a prank by dumping a bucket of pink paint all over him.

No one has ever seen Starscream run that fast, or hide behind Soundwave. Poor Soundwave, Starscream smeared some of the paint on him when he grabbed him. Needless to say, everyone got rid of anything pink, fuchsia, or any other color even _close_.

"Hey, Swin." Vortex mumbled, knife in his neck vibrating. "You're makin' faces. What's going on in that head of yours?" He spared Swindle a curious glance, before turning to look where they were flying again. Swindle kept silent for a moment, eying the blade. "Ju-u-us-st thi-in-n-nking a-abou-ou-ut every-y-o-one-ones is-s-s-sue-ues-s." He muttered, optic twitching. "You-ou-u kno-o-ow-ow, how ever-r-ry-yone ha-a-as som-m-me so-or-ort of is-s-sue? Star-r-scre-ea-eam with wi-i-in-ngs, Thu-un-n-nder-er-crac-ck-cker with th-th-ings be-e-eing strai-ai-ght, Sound-d-wave w-with Co-o-untry, Mega-a-tron with Pink, so on..." He felt himself nearly reaching for the blade, but quickly forced himself back down.

Vortex hummed, blade shifting from vibrations. "What brought all that on?" He chuckled, curiously tilting his head, though refraining from glancing back to Swindle. With another twitch, the golden Combaticon tore his optics from the blade to look up as best he could to Vortex's face. "The bla-a-ade in you-our ne-eck." He watched for a reaction, though wasn't sure what kind he wanted to see, what with the mask and all. Vortex made a curious sound.

"The what in _my_ _what_?" Okay, so that answered the lingering question of whether or not Vortex knew about the object of Swindle's almost undivided attention. "Blade...in y-your ne-eck...how d-i-id you _no-o-t _noti-i-ce?" Swindle gave him a skeptical look, but Vortex removed one of his arms from under Swindle - who in turn grabbed a hold of him to keep from falling - and started feeling around his neck. Soon enough he brushed against the blade, which shifted with a _squelch _and flinched. Hard. Nearly dropping Swindle.

"Ow!" He cried, jerking his hand from the blade to secure Swindle yet again. "Fragger that hurt! How long has that _been _there?" He twisted his neck around, continuously, as if he was causing him discomfort. How it hadn't sooner, Swindle figured was because of sweet, blissful ignorance. "I'll have to get Hook to remove it or something when we get back to base." He mumbled, turning his attention back to the skies. Considering they were already over the ocean, that probably wouldn't be long from now.

So, Vortex kept quiet after realizing talking shifted the blade and made it worse, and Swindle took up staring at it.

And holding himself back from grabbing it.

Soon enough they came upon the rising form of the Decepticon Base, Swindle latched onto Vortex as they went in to land, knowing Vortex the landing wouldn't be very graceful. And it wasn't, he hit, stumbled, nearly fell, and proceeded to drop Swindle. Which he apologized for, twice, and helped him to his feet. Of course it took Onslaught to keep him from falling back down again, as he glared at a chuckling Vortex.

"Okay Swindle, let's get you to the med bay so Hook can repair your helm." Onslaught spoke, picking Swindle up off his feet and carrying him down to the med bay before he could protest. Brawl walked along with them, to one side. Vortex on the other. If it seemed like Brawl was avoiding Vortex, it's because he is. Ever sense Vortex "awed" when he hugged Swindle back, Brawl had been glaring Vortex down. And staying as physically far away as possible sense they lived together and had to go the same way.

Swindle would have rolled his optics at them were he able.

Instead he turned his attention to the blade still dangling from Vortex's neck, who he seemed to of forgotten about, turning all his attention to Brawl to stick his tongue out at the tank. Who glared at him, silently threatening to rip that tongue right out of his mouth. So the walk to the med bay was quiet mostly, aside from growls or giggles from Vortex and Brawl. Onslaught kept quiet, stoic, and focused on fallowing Hook to the med bay. Swindle stared at the blade.

Just stared.

Until they walked through the med bay doors, which cut off his vision of the blade. He turned to look at the room as they entered. Filled with various machines and about five berths, purple walls. And Starscream sitting with Skywarp in the far corner, repairing his wing. So, the usual. Same, plain old med bay. Swindle grumbled as Onslaught sat him on a berth and sent a command through their comm. for him to "Stay put", before walking over where Hook headed.

Vortex flopped down beside Swindle, and proceeded to poke and prod at his blade, flinching or seething each time. Or mumbling "ow". Swindle just stared, at the blade. Even ignoring Onslaught and Hook as they came and started talking right in-front of them. "Swindle is fine for now, just needs his helm repaired. I have no way to repair his emotion chip...thingy...though. It should eventually fix itself." A shrug. "But I should probably remove that knife before Vortex shoves it farther up his throat." He turned to send a warning glare at Vortex, who stopped messing with the blade.

Until Hook and Onslaught turned their backs to them.

"Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow." Swindle continued to stare a the blade, they said he was going to be fixed soon, right? They would have to remove it, right? Hook's already getting the supplies.

"H-he-ey, 'Te-ex?" Vortex turned to look at Swindle, tilting his head curiously. Exposing the blade.

"Yeah, Swind-AH-OOOWWW!"

* * *

**Authors Notes: **We all have little issues like that. I for one, have the issue with things being lopsided like Starscream and Thundercracker. Ha-ha. This chapter is kind of random, made just to be funny. Show the less serious sides of everyone. And look, Starscream appears! So does Skywarp. Wonder how they'll react to the five being there? Blast Off wasn't quite mentioned much in some chapters because he's the less involved in the story, at least until later chapters. After things develop a bit, so no, I haven't forgotten him. No worries! Hope you enjoy.

**Disclaimer: **Transformers does not belong to me, nor do any of it's Characters.


	6. Seekers Are Crazy

Swindle twirled the blade - one which had formally been lodged into Vortex's throat - between his fingers as he watched Vortex poke and prod his now bleeding injury. Hole in the neck, hole in the head. At least he isn't alone in suffering now. Though Vortex looks like he's anything _but _suffering, grinning and prodding at the gash, repeating "ow" each time. Swindle found himself half tempted to jam it back in, just to see if the Copter would go back to poking the object instead of the wound.

He probably would...

"Swindle," At the mention of his name, violet optics turned to meet red. "O-h, he-ey St-a-ar-" Swindle found himself at a loss for words as the Seeker suddenly grabbed a hold of his face plates, forcing him to turn his head to the side. He then proceeded to look over Swindle's head injury. He continued to turn Swindle's head ever so slightly to look at it from different angles, humming, growling, or mumbling something. He finally forced Swindle to look at him again. "What happened? Who got you? How do you feel? Dizzy? Headaches? Have you had anything strange happen sense it happened? Any other damage? Internal damage? Did you ever go into stasis?" Starscream continued to list a string of questions. One after another.

He heard headache in there somewhere, well duh he had a head ache. Hole. In head. Headache would likely happen. Not to mention all the questions!

"Sta-arsc-c-rea-am." Swindle waved a hand in-front of the Seeker's face, halting his questions. "I'm fi-i-ine. Jus' g-got a b-i-ig ho-o-le in m-my he-a-ad." Swindle sighed. Starscream eyed him skeptically for a moment, before Vortex decided it was time for him to pop into the conversation. "Emotion explosion!" He exclaimed from the side, right into Starscream's audio receptors. The Seeker seethed and sent the 'Copter a glare, before frowning and tilting his head in confusion. "What?"

Vortex grinned like a maniac, scooting closer to Starscream - nearly falling off the berth doing so. "Emotion. Explosion! Swinsie has it!" Swindle sent Vortex a glare that went unnoticed. Starscream's utterly lost and confused face seemed more interesting to the silver-gray flyer. Blinking a few times, Starscream finally drew out a long sigh, and reached over to the right, dragging Skywarp - who had apparently been standing there unnoticed - and pushing him towards Vortex.

"I don't talk moron. Skywarp; translate."

Swindle almost found it amusing how neither took that as an insult and went straight onto talking.

"Swindle's emotions are all wacky." Skywarp stated, turning and grinning a grin equal only to Vortex's at the white, red, and blue Seeker. Starscream glanced to Swindle. "So you're emote chip was damaged?" Swinlde simply nodded, shrugged, and turned to watch Hook and Onslaught argue about something, and as Brawl seemingly decided to stay as far away from the two as possible. All the while avoiding Vortex. So in others words the tank was now sitting in a far off corner, staring at the wall.

Fun.

"Hook!" Swindle flinched, feeling something scrape lightly against his injury. He glanced up a bit, seeing Starscream glaring at Hook from where he stood, hands in Swindle's head. How did he not notice the SIC had put his _hands _in _his head_? Knew letting Vortex sit so close was a bad idea, he's rubbing moron off on him. "What the pit did you do to Swindle's emote chip!" He demanded, Hook turning to glare at him. "Repaired it. Thought it was his personality component."

Starscream threw the closest thing he could grab at Hook, which happened to be the knife-thing Swindle had pulled from Vortex's neck, it went right over the Constructicon Medic's head, making a nice _thuck _sound as it embedded itself into the wall behind him. "If it had been his personality component..." Starscream growled. "He would probably _have _no personality anymore, and would just be a _mindless shell." _The next thing Starscream managed to grab appeared to be a wrench, which he chucked at Hook.

Brings back memories of a certain Medic they all know and fear.

Hook ducked under it. "You don't weld a chip back together you idiot! It's delicate!" Another wrench - no wait - screwdriver. "Do you _know_ what you could have _done_?" He managed to throw about three at a time that time. Skywarp finally grabbed the tool kit from him. "Stop beating up Hook, 'Screamer! He's the closest thing to a medic we got!" Starscream rounded on him, grabbed the toolkit back, and whopped him in the head before sitting it down on the bench it had been on. "Don't move around vital equipment! The medic won't be able to find it when it's later needed!" He scolded.

Everyone just stared at that.

"But you were the one just throwing them _at _the Medic!" Skywarp yelped, running and hiding behind the nearest berth - which happened to be Swindle's. "And you!" He turned, pointing a digit at Swindle, who flinched. "Be aware of your surroundings when alone on the battle field!" He frowned, crossed his arms and huffed. "And where is Blast Off?" Everyone looked at Onslaught as Starscream popped that question. Blast Off had kept a distance from them on the flight home, and hadn't walked to the med bay with them.

Onslaught would know though. Right?

"He went straight to his quarters." Onslaught slouched slightly when Starscream gave him a glare. "And why - may I ask - did he not come to the repair bay with you four? _Everyone _is supposed to come in for a check up after battles. Especially-!" He pointed to Swindle dramatically. "When one of your allies get's a huge _hole in the head_!" Swindle managed not to flinch that time, but turned his attention to the finger in his face.

Half tempted to bite it. Pointing is rude.

But Starscream would probably kick his aft for it, hole in the head or not.

So he turned his attention to the knife in the wall, which he was only has surprised to see Vortex trying to remove. Likely wanting it as a "souvenir" from their latest battle. Or just because it was in his neck for so long without his notice. Or just because...knowing Vortex...it could be anything. He'd probably later end up getting it taken away for doing something stupid with it, though.

He leaned slightly, looking down at Skywarp, who sat behind him, fingers draped over the berth and head and body hidden behind. Only thing that would visible from Starscream's angle would be the tips of his finger, top of the head and optics. Skywarp suddenly hefted up - making Swindle jerk to keep from getting headbutted - and pounced over the berth, tackling Starscream to the ground.

Swindle stared as the two began to wrestle.

"Starscream! Don't kill Hook!" Skywarp whined. "He's our only medic and I still have that bullet thing in my back!"

"I need him alive to remove it, kill him later!"

...Seekers...

"If you don't get off that won't be the _only thing _he'll need to remove from your _back side_!"

...Are crazy...

Vortex walked up and plopped back down beside Swindle, staring at the two.

He grinned, twirling the blade around his fingers like Swindle had been doing earlier- _slip_.

"YeOwch!"

Oops.

"Sorry 'Warp."

* * *

**Authors Notes: **Did I mention Starscream acts sort of overprotective of the Combaticons in this fanfic? No? Oh, sorry. Just wait until interactions with Megatron start. Get's interesting then, especially sense Swindle's very "emotional" at the moment. Hehe~

**Disclaimer: **Transformers does not belong to me, nor do any of it's Characters.


	7. Vote Of Confidence

In the end, Starscream insisted _he _fix Swindle's injuries, and even went so far as to keep Hook and the other Constructicons at bay with a crow bar. No one quite knew where he got it, and Hook swore it wasn't part of _his _tools. So Starscream went on to do a complete check over of Swindle, the first thing he decided to repair was the helm, mumbling here and there about how Hook should have covered the delicate circuitry instead of leaving it an open wound. Swindle - having Starscream _in his head _heard most of it. The Seeker seemed paranoid that he could of caught something with a head wound open like that, or that he could of gotten some water into it and shorted something. And it appeared to have some dirt and grass from when he fell to the ground.

So after cleaning the injury - which surprisingly didn't hurt the smaller Mech - he started patching it up. Welding new metal together carefully, slowly to keep from hitting something delicate or fatal. It turned out to be a slow, painful process, but he wasn't allowed into stasis until they were done repairing him. Just in case something went wrong, they didn't want him going into stasis and never coming back out. So Starscream put all his focus into not messing up Swindle's head more than it already was, while Hook fixed up Vortex. Onslaught watched from the side, awaiting his turn and keeping an eye on Brawl to make sure the tank didn't get bored and break something.

Vortex seemed to be enjoying himself, though. And distracting Hook from fixing his neck by messing with random things within reach, talking and forcing the medic to stop to keep from damaging his throat farther, or pointing at random things and asking what they were. Hook had to push everything out of his reach, everything except the tool kit he needed to repair the Helicopter. And, of course, Vortex got into it. He took a handful of bolts and screws.

And started chucking them at Brawl who was seemingly sulking in a far corner all on his lonesome.

The room filled with silence aside from stiffed giggling, the clank of screws and bolts colliding with Brawl's head, and the occasional sound of welding or power tools. It was an eerie kind of silence, a stiff silence. One that felt as if it were the calm before the storm, which knowing his Family...is exactly what it is. Things got a little more tense when Skywarp suddenly decided it would be fun to distract Starscream by mocking Vortex. So he grabbed a handful of bolts and screws and started chucking them at Starscream.

They hit him in the head, wings, but mainly right between his shoulders.

And of course, everyone knows Seekers are sensitive around the wings. So every time a bolt or screw hit him in the wings they would flinch, shift upwards or down. When one would hit him between the shoulders a reflex would kick int that would make him suddenly stand straight, and Swindle had a good view of the fact Starscream was retraining a reflex to turn and shoot whoever was behind him. But he would only growl at Skywarp, send him a glare, then get back to work.

And Skywarp would wait a few minutes before doing it again.

Swindle started leaning back as Skywarp readied to through another one, Starscream he become a bit tense. Which meant he was likely angry. And Swindle didn't want an angry Starscream working on his head when that next screw or bolt hit him. He knew very well that Starscream might accidentally break something if he was still working on him. Starscream lowered his hands, noting Swindle's expression and the leaning away from him. He drooped his wings slightly, angrily.

And when Skywarp threw the screw, Starscream rounded on him. Catching the screw in his right hand, he drew it back, and threw the screw right back. It was thrown with more force then Skywarp had been throwing them. It hit the violet Seeker right between the optics, with a yelp he tumbled off the berth he had been occupying. Starscream turned around, smirking as a satisfying _clank _filled the room. He got back to work on Swindle's nearly fully repaired helm.

From across the room Vortex busted into laughter and fell off his berth, being in mid throw Brawl turned to see him fall, and sneered. Onslaught just sighed and shook his head, arms crossed as he leaned against the wall closest to the door. Swindle refrained from giggling or anything, sense...Starscream would probably get irritated from him moving while he's trying to fix his head. "Done." Swindle tilted his head up some, Starscream smirked and flicked his helm with his finger middle finger. "All you have to do is get it painted to match the rest of your helm." He swept away something from Swindle's helm and looked him over.

"Now, let me have a look at that voice modulator." The SIC mumbled as he knelt down and poked at Swindle's neck, just above his chest-plate. Swindle nodded and removed the outer plating protecting the wiring within. Starscream started messing with wires and snatched a tool - one which Swindle missed - and started messing around in his neck. Swindle felt a wave of uncertainty wash over him, not really liking others messing around with wiring where he couldn't see. Though it confused him.

Starscream was just in his _head, _and _that _didn't bother him.

Probably just the damaged emotion chip thing talking.

After a moment, something sparked in his view, and he felt that uncertainty swell. Luckily Starscream pulled out, smirking, and placed the plating back over his neck. "Alright, Swindle," Starscream stood, and looked him in the optics. "Try and talk." Swindle nodded, and tried to think of something to say. He glanced around the room.

"Brawl," The tank lifted his head. "Stop pouting, it doesn't suit you." Swindle smirked as Brawl looked at him, then scowled before returning to his "pout" position. Everyone knew he was only pouting because he got in trouble with Onslaught, and didn't get to fight anymore after Swindle was hurt. And because he had monitor duty today, soon actually. Probably right after his check-and-repair.

Swindle looked to Starscream, who now had that smug smirk on his face as he looked to Hook, who glared back at the Seeker. "Starscream," Starscream looked down to Swindle. "Thanks." Swindle smiled, and Starscream's smirk faded to reveal a very confused Seeker. After a moment he smiled back - somewhat nervously - and nodded. "Anytime." He turned and strode over to Skywarp, who had yet to get up off the floor. In fact, he had stayed there and decided throwing screws and bolts in the air and trying to catch them _in his mouth _without _swallowing _was more entertaining.

Starscream caught one as he threw it, dropped it so it hit him right in the left optic, before bending down and dragging the Violet flyer to his feet. "Come on, Warp. I'll repair you when we get to our room. We were supposed to meet up with Thundercracker a good twenty minutes ago." He started shoving the slightly larger flyer towards the door. "Ooh, 'Cracker's gonna be maaad!" Skywarp giggled, grabbing Starscream by the arm.

Suddenly they were gone, warped out by Skywarp.

Swindle stared for a moment, before looking himself over. Aside from his head, legs, and throat, he didn't have much else damaged. Hook had already fixed his legs as best they could be fixed without replacement parts, and Starscream took care of the rest. He stared at the ground, wondering if he could walk. Probably not. Don't know 'till you try, though! So without a second though, Swindle slid off the berth. His pedes touched the floor, and he instantly regret it. It didn't hurt, no, but a pressure tightened in his right leg and it bucked under the strain, so he found himself falling to the right. He caught himself on the berth, but a pressure feel kept in his right leg up to his right thigh for a few minutes. Not painful, but very uncomfortable.

Not to mention all the burnt metal rubbing together.

Onslaught eyed their youngest member from across the room, Swindle struggled to find a way to stand and walk. He flexed his legs out a bit, and attempted to stand again, leaning to his left. He managed a balance, now the next problem was taking a step. And walking. Swindle seemed determined though, for every time he nearly fell, or did fall, he would lift himself back up and try again. Onslaught had to resist the urge to go over to help him, knowing Swindle would just refuse, or be embarrassed. He felt the urge to at least run and _catch _him, but chose to watch as he fell to the floor.

Every time their smallest would get back up, steady himself, and try again.

Every optic on the room would turn to him, and they would pull their attention away. Vortex would eye him for a moment longer, and smile. Likely quietly cheering him on, if there was one mech in this room who actually had any sort of respect for Swindle, it was Vortex. The two spent so much time together they were practically joined at the hip. Being the two youngest members, though Vortex still had a large age gap making him older than Swindle. They were pretty much best friends, even after Swindle had sold them. Vortex was the first to forgive him. It didn't take long for the two to become the best of friends again, either.

Which is why it didn't surprise Onslaught in the slightest that Vortex was willing to embarrass Swindle when he managed to finally get a few steps in, by cheering him on - quite loudly. "Whoo! Way to go Swindle! I knew you could do it! That's the way!" He all but sang to the youngest, who looked up at hims as if he had just hosed him down with a fire hose. If mechs could blush, Swindle would probably be twenty different shades of red.

Instead he just chose to stutter. "Sh-shut up, 'Tex..." And smile sweetly - embarrassed to the core - to take the sting form his words. Vortex just giggled at him, grinning. Swindle managed to make it to Vortex, though he had a horrible limp, it seemed as if he couldn't even move his right leg at times. It made almost everyone in the room want to rush to help him, Onslaught didn't doubt that. Everyone had their optics trained on him until he was sitting next to Vortex, who patted him on the back and congratulated him one "taking his first steps". It earned him a playful punch in the arm.

Vortex had been repaired by then, and Hook had moved on to Brawl. He had welded the injury shut, and just wrapped a bandage around it. And told him not to poke at it, which - of course - prompted him to poke at it. Until Hook threatened to weld his hand to his aft if he didn't stop. It really didn't work, it took another threat to weld him to Brawl or Blast Off before he finally stopped poking at it. And now he appeared to be looking over Swindle's freshly repaired helm.

"It's orange." Vortex muttered, poking the freshly welded on metal patch. Swindle swatted his hand away. "Orange? What's orange?" Came Swindle's reply. Vortex poked the metal again, and Swindle swatted him away again. "The patch. The metal is painted _orange_. That happy-go-lucky goody goody peace love and hugsies Autobot orange, too." He poked it again, Swindle swatted him again. "Why do we have metal that color?" He tilted his head in slight confusion, slapping Vortex away as he yet again poked the patch. "Dunno. But it's irritating me." Another poke, another swat. Swindle looked over to Hook. "Hey, got any body paint I can use to recolor this VORTEX STOP POKING IT!" Swindle swatted Vortex's hand away a bit more violently this time, Vortex pouted. "Sorry! Jeez." He rubbed his hand.

"Yeah, I have some. But no black." Hook turned and walked to a supplies cabinet, digging through it. "What colors _do _you have?" Swindle inquired as he hopped off the berth, nearly fell, and decided it would be best to sit back down and let it be tossed to him or something. It would take Hook far less time to get to him anyways. Hook dug through the cabinets, humming, then stopped and frowned. "I only have one color...I have no clue how this got in here either. I thought I threw all of this color out..." He drew out the can, and looked it over, turning it in his hand and checking it over. He shook it, yet, still full. As if brand new.

"Probably Skywarp's doing..." He muttered, and bounded over to Swindle. "What's the color?" Swindle looked up at Hook, the medic frowned. "You should probably just leave it the way it is..." "Any color is better than this cheerful Autobot orange!" Vortex poked Swindle's patch again as he exclaimed. Swindle swatted him away, and nodded. "Yeah, just get it over with." Swindle spun around the injury faced him. "In fact, if it isn't black just paint my entire helm for now, I'll paint it back when you get black paint again. I don't want to walk around with patches visible." Hook went to say something, but sighed instead. "Don't blame me."

He got to work painting Swindle's helm, Vortex - not even bothering to check the color - wondered over to Brawl.

"Just avoid Megatron for a while, Swindle."

"Huh?"

* * *

**Authors Notes: **I've portrayed Vortex as a bit of a dork, huh? Nah, he's just kid like and crazy. Just a warning, there will be a bit of drama in later chapters, Swindle's gong to be getting out and around the base soon. Not all of the Decepticons like him. He isn't that well liked after all. Though he's generally more liked in this story than he is in the show/comics. Just have to wait and see!

**Disclaimer: **Transformers does not belong to me, not do any of it's Characters.


	8. Nostalgia

Blast Off found himself slightly relieved when Swindle bounded up to him, smiling that "salesman" smile, and asked him to take him to a planet not far from this mud ball to do a little "shopping". He had his old, swindler smile back. It seemed that despite the emotional state he had been in sense his emotion...chip thing was damaged, he still had his personality in tact. Though, no one seemed quite sure whether or not that was a good thing...but at least he was still their beloved - kind of - little brother.

Either way, it made Blast Off relax a bit knowing his "sibling" hadn't changed, though it didn't take any of the bluntness from his words as he looked at Swindle, and spoke a word that made Swindle give him a look that - as humans say - made him feel as if he had kicked a puppy. Of course, were that true, the puppy couldn't give him a look. It would be dead, in a pile of squished puppy goo. "No." Was that word, Swindle's smile faltered instantly, and he gave him that look. Quivering lip and all. It made the shuttle wonder if Swindle was using his "injury" as an advantage, what with the constant mood changes. They had been doing nothing but good for him so far.

Getting coddled by Onslaught, Vortex, even Brawn. Having Starscream keep a close optic on him, especially after Hook had painted his helm a nice, glittery, hot pink. Which Skywarp admitted he had put in there, in hopes that it would get to one of the Cone Heads or on of the cassette twins. He swore he forgot about it and apologized, promising to get Swindle some black paint and polish to get rid of the pink. Which he still had yet to do. So a lot of mechs, surprisingly a lot, either dragged Swindle off or distracted Megatron whenever they got too close to running into each other.

Everyone learned the hard way - mainly Starscream and Soundwave - that Megatron does not. like. pink. In any form or shade. And Swindle's hot pink, glittering helm would likely be no different, and it would make a good target for their "Glorious" Leader, who would likely aim right at the offending color with his Cannon. Though, of course, a few mechs who disfavor Swindle have been trying the opposite.

Though a null ray from Starscream, a punch from Brawl, or a nice - sadistic - disapproval from Vortex usually got them to leave him be. Even Skywarp got involved, warming Thrust out into the middle of the ocean, when he all but _dragged _Swindle in Megatron's direction when the smaller 'Con spotted him and turned to escape his wrath.

In fact, he had still yet to return...

Blast Off snapped from his thoughts, looking down at Swindle who now glare-pouted at him. All it really did was make him look adorable, really. Like a sparkling who got refused some Energon Goodies. Which knowing Swindle, was likely more along the line of "credit goodies". Primus forbid Swindle get refused the chance to _swindle _someone. Or be ignored in favor of thinking, as it appears Swindle is now complaining something along the lines of "You're not listening", which is kind of true. For he had sort of tuned him out after he said no and Swindle started trying to "sweet talk" him into taking him.

"Swindle," The smaller mech stopped talking and gave him a curious glance upwards, which only proved to make him look _younger_, be it possible. In fact, ever sense that blow to the head seemed...younger. Acted it, looked it. His over-all form hadn't changed at all he just...started acting younger, less...swindler...like? Primus that sounded so unintelligent. "I would listen...if you would talk less, stay on topic, and take an answer - the first answer - as the only answer and _leave _it. I said no, I meant no, I'm not changing my mind. If you're so desperate to talk someone into it, go bother Astrotrain." He gave a dismissal wave of the hand, tilting his head down at the other.

Swindle pouted again, slouching his shoulders. "But Blast Off!" He whined. "...Astrotrain scares me..." He made a point of growing a very paranoid expression, glancing around and curling in on himself slightly, bringing both hands to clasp infont of his chest. Blast Off stared at him for a moment, not sure whether to laugh, inquire the exactly reason _why _he feared him, or leave the topic alone. He decided with B.

"And he scares you...why?" He tilted his head to the side slightly, crossing his arms across his chest as the kept his optics Swindle. Swindle gave him a look, one that made the shuttle feel sort of stupid for even asking. "You're kidding," He frowned. "He's insane! Even Starscream's somewhat afraid of him! And Primus knows Starscream acts like a coward but he's pretty damn brave..." Swindle frowned, slouching slightly more. He suddenly perked up, which made Blast Off jump a bit. "You know what!" He pointed to the sky enthusiastically, before bringing his hand down in a fist, smirking. "I can't wait until the day he shows these slag-heads a thing or two! I hear them talking about him all the time, saying he's stupid and cowardly! But that's just because they don't know him like we do!" He grinned up at Blast Off.

"Starscream's smart! He's a scientist! Or used to be...and he's brave! You have to be in order to willingly back talk Megatron! It isn't him being stupid..." Swindle trailed off, and shook his head. He seemed at a lost for a moment, growing a confused expression. Blast Off quirked an optic ridge, about to question before Swindle perked back up. Strange. "Seems like the only ones who know how he really is are us and his Trine. And Soundwave!" Blast Off smiled under his mask, it was kind of cute - in a weird way - how he seemed to look up to Starscream. In a weird way...

But then again, despite how he tended to act around them when with others, he did care for them. And surprisingly had been showing that in public a lot more recently, sense Swindle's injury. It seemed Skywarp had a soft spot for them too. Soundwave had always had a soft spot for Swindle, though. Which weirded Starscream out at first. He later figured it was because Swindle was young, and innocent in his own...twisted...swindling way. He shoved it off as something to do with having kids of his own, that he naturally had a soft spot for youngsters. After all, he seemingly went easier on the younger Autobots. If he even fought them.

Soundwave and kids, dang. Like his "Father" drive never kicked off after having to raise the brats he has now.

Though, admittedly, Soundwave's _brats _got along fine with them. Especially Rumble, who seemed to just like hanging around Starscream and Skywarp for some reason. Perhaps it had something to do with how Skywarp once told them to "Just call me Uncle 'Warp!" shortly after they met and Starscream got back with his Trine. The only one who ever actually _did _call him that, only did so once. It was Vortex. And he did it to tease him after he got in trouble with him and they were locked in a cell together.

"Blast Off!" He snapped from his thoughts and looked to Swindle, who gave him an accusing glare. "What?" He asked, blinking a few times. "You started ignoring me again!" He pointed, then crossed his arms in a huff. Yeah, that damage had to of taken his mind back in a time or something, because he's acting like he did when they were younger...before they were..._imprisoned_.

It kind of made him nostalgic though.

"You know if you're just going to stand around and think...you can do so while _I'm shopping _on that little _planet _I was telling you about!" Blast Off gave him a smirk. "Nice try." Swindle crossed his arms, slouched his shoulders, and pouted. Blast Off chuckled, giving him a pat on the head. "Fine..." Swindle sighed, and turned. "I'll go ask Astrotrain." He stalked off towards the door, paused, and looked around. "Vortex is in his room..." Blast Off stated knowingly, Swindle shot him a look, nodded, and walked out the room.

Blast Off chuckled, and went back to reading his datapad, which Swindle had interrupted him in the middle of.

"No let's see if Charlie gets with Katie...or if he confesses that he truly is in love with her best friend, Jane."

He smiled as he started where he left off.

* * *

**Authors Notes: **First off, I would like to say sorry...I just _HAD _to add that last part! Just made up names. You get the idea though, Blast Off is reading a cheesy romance novel. One of the drama filled types. Cliché types. You get the idea. I wasn't going to, not originally, but it just came to me while typing and I figured it would be funny. I was going to make it Onslaught, but figured Blast Off would be funnier. Bet you can't guess why Swindle was looking for Vortex! You'll find out in the next chapter, though.

**Disclaimer: **Transformers does not belong to me, nor do any of it's Characters.


	9. Annoying Delay

Swindle found himself becoming quite annoyed with the pace he had to go at when going from one place to another, his ever present limp really seemed to be weighing him down , which for someone as "well liked" as him, isn't a good thing. Can't run away from people who wouldn't mind ripping off a limb or four if you can't even _walk _properly. Hook had given him a sort of...cast...as Onslaught called it. It helped him walk a bit better, but weighed him down more and felt very...bulky and uncomfortable. Especially sense - like everything Hook gave him for injuries - it appeared to be made for someone bigger than himself. Isn't everything?

He'd only seen a couple of 'Cons so far, though. So at least he didn't run that much of a chance of running into someone he'd rather not. But then again, he also ran the chance of running into someone he'd rather not and not having any witnesses around. So, it was a win loose. Depended on how things went. But on the bright side he would be to his Gestalt's shared room soon enough. He wondered if Megatron would ever let them get their own room, or perhaps move out. This place is far too crowded.

Well...not at the moment but...still.

"Hey, Swindle!" Swindle nearly screamed, but luckily bit it back. He did jump though, not high but still a jump. He turned to face the sound, and found himself staring at Thundercracker. He felt himself relax a bit. "Oh, Thundercracker. Don't scare me like that..." Swindle slouched his shoulder forward a bit, venting a sigh. Thundercracker smirked at him. "Sorry, didn't mean to startle you. You walked right past me though." Swindle looked up at him, curious. He didn't...see him. Odd. "Anyways, Megatron took Soundwave and Starscream to go get Thrust. Surprisingly...he was going to leave him there. But someone - don't know who - managed to talk him into going and getting the idiot." Thundercracker made a dismissive wave with his hand, shaking his head.

"Where is he?" Swindle quirked, blinking curiously at the Seeker. "Autobot's got him, fished him out of a river or something." He shrugged. "He's been missing. No one noticed. "Anyways, Megatron's gone, so you don't have to sneak around. He just left, likely won't be back for a while. You know how obsessed he is with fighting Prime. I think it's a fetish..." Thundercracked grew a thoughtful face, which changed into a disgusted one and he roughly shook his head. "Primus! Images!" Swindle frowned, tilting his head and staring confused at the Seeker as he waved his hands repeating "Ew! Ew! Ew!" over and over.

Images? Of _what? _Never mind, he decided, no knowing is probably better.

So he slipped away, going unnoticed by Thundercracker who grew a look as if he were about to purge his tanks. He slid off and made his way towards Vortex's room. Until he found himself being stopped again, only it appeared to be by Hook this time. _Where did he come from? _"Hey Swindle. How's the injuries doing?" Seemed more like a demand than a question, with that gruff voice of his. "Fine." Swindle squeaked. "Healing nicely!" Hook nodded, giving him a prying, suspicious look. "Okay." And he was off, striding towards Thundercracker and yelling at him, something about his processor being fried.

He only flinched when he heard Hook exclaim "Ew!" and quickly walk away from the spazzing Seeker.

Swindle kept his optics locked forward as he walked, intent on running into no more distra- "Heya Swin'!" Swindle shrieked, loud, when Skywarp suddenly appeared in front of him and grabbed his shoulders. Skywarp paused, stunned, but still smiling. He blinked, and grew a confused look, still smiling. "Damn," He shook his helm. "Nearly blew my audios, there, Swindle." Swindle had taken a pose similar to a schoolgirl who had just had her foot run over by a mouse. Arms curled up to his chest, one foot in the air, as he was turned halfway from Skywarp, optics wide and mouth agape.

Skywarp probably saved a mental image of that.

With a chuckle, he pats Swindle on the head. "Just wanted to say 'hi'! Got to go find T.C. now, he's freaking out over something, I can _feel _it! I want to know what!" And like that, as sudden as he appeared, the violet and black Seeker disappears. Swindle, still in his startled position, evens himself and stiffly continues his limp-walk towards Vortex's _oh-so close _room. Their room.

A room without freaky Seekers and scary Medics.

Almost there, he smiles. No more interruptions! He can finally get Vortex and go find Astrotrain and have him take him to that planet so he can do some shopping, perhaps some _selling _if he's lucky! "Hey, pip squeak!" Swindle twitches. "Think you can help me with someone." Swindle turns, intent on just outright saying "no" until he notes who's talking to him. Blitzwing gives him an expectant glare from where he stands, holding what looks like a ventilation shaft cover. _Why do they even have those? Under water...makes no sense. _Swindle frowned. "What?" He tries to ask as nicely, and non-snappy as possible. It came out kind of strained.

Blitzwing glares at him for a moment, before pointing up at the vent. Swindle looks up, and frowns. Looks at Blitzwing questionably for a moment, then back to the vent. The triple-changer growls. "Skywarp threw my datapad up in there, I need someone _small _to climb up in there and get it, it's beyond my reach." He stated, growling and gritting the words. Swindle blinks at him, and motions towards his cased leg. "How exactly do you expect _me _to do that? My leg is useless without the cast, and the cast doesn't exactly _bend to my will_." It doesn't, stiff and inflexible it is.

Blitzwing glares harder, if it's possible. "Too bad, runt." He grits, grabbing Swindle by the arm and jerking him towards him. "You'll just have to _drag _yourself towards it." He unceremoniously - and quite easily -shoves Swindle into the vent after voicing that bit. Gaining a yelp from the smaller mech, he shoves him up entirely into the vent. "Now go fetch it!"

Swindle, now sprawled inside the vent - which seemed to be made for someone his exact size... - frowned, contemplating knocking the triple changer out, dismantling him, and selling him as spare premium Cybertronian parts. Vortex would probably help...Brawl too. Maybe even Onslaught.

With a grunt, he leans on his elbows and looks around, easily spotting the glowing datapad little ways from him. Venting a sigh, he drags himself towards it, valiantly ignoring the pain it causes his damaged leg as the melded metal scraps against the cast and tugs. He paused and reached for it, brushing the tips of his fingers against it. Just a littler farther, he pressed forward, leaning on his arms and reaching as far as his arms can go, straining some joints. He finally managed to grab it, pulling it back carefully then turning in the vent.

It was embarrassingly easy to do...

He pulled himself back to the opening and looked down, seeing an expecting Blitzwing. He dangles the datapad and smiles. "Got it!" Blitzwing brightens up, reaching for it. Swindle pulls it out of his reach. Blitzwing's features darken with a snarl, Swindle shakes his finger at him. "Get me down first. I don't want you to leave me up here." Blinking, the triple changer tilts a head at him. "That's all? No "How much you willing to pay for it" or anything?" He gives the smaller mech a skeptical look.

Swindle shakes his head. "Nope, not worth risking getting stuck up here." He dangles the pad where Blitzwing can see it. "Now get me down." Blitzwing paused, eying him, than smirks. "Not a fan of small places?" "Nope." Swindle froze, cursing himself. He answered that a little too quickly. Bliztwing smirks, jumping up and grabbing for the pad. "Get used to it then!" He chuckled darkly. Swindle is one step ahead. He backs up in the vent, pulling himself and the datapad quickly beyond the others reach.

Bliztwings curses, missing them by a mere inch.

"Ya little-! Get back here!" He snarled, poking his head through the vent and reaching for the golden mech. Swindle backs deeper into the shaft, far beyond the angry flyers reach. Blitzwing glares, and vents a sigh. "Fine," He speaks softly. "Come here and I'll get you out." He motions for Swindle to come closer. Instead he moves farther, glaring at him. "Like hell! Do I _look _stupid to you?" He snarls.

Blitzwing gives him a neutral expression. "Do you _want _me to answer that?"

Swindle snarls, sub-spacing the datapad. "Frag you! I'm selling this thing!" With that, he turns and drags himself farther into the vents. Blitzwing starts sputtering out all sorts of curses and threats. "GET BACK HERE!" He goes ignored, as Swindle tunes him out and continues pulling himself through the vents. Why did they even have vents in an _under water base _occupied by _Cybertronian machines _that don't even _breath_, he would never know. But at least they made a good escape route for the smaller mechs.

All of them, he found, as he turned a corner and can head-to-head with Frenzy. "Ow!" The red cassette sputtered, sitting up and holding his helm. "Watch where you're goin'!" He rubs his helm, eying Swindle for a moment, who stares right back. "What are you doing here?" They ask in unison, both pausing. "I'm hiding from Soundwave..." Frenzy gives him a wary glance. "You?"

"Blitzwing shoved me in here to get a datapad, was going to leave me so I sub-spaced it and ran- er...crawled." A slight shrug. Frenzy nods in understanding. "Yeah, had Dirge do that to me one time. Wasn't to get a datapad though." Swindle quirks and optic ridge. "What was it fo-" "You don't want to know!" Frenzy cut him off, waving hands wildly and shaking his head. As if trying to shake away the thought and memory. "Anyways, your room is that way, if that's where you're headin'." He points down from where he himself had came. Swindle nods. "Thanks."

Frenzy smirks. "Us lil' guys gotta stick together, mech." And with that, he's quickly making his way down the way Swindle had come from. "I'll give Blitz' a nice kick in the head when I jump out, for ya!" He calls back, cheerily. Swindle chuckles, and continues to make his way towards his room. After all, he needed to get Vortex before even considering going after Astrotrain, and he didn't want to get lost in this place. Best trust those who knew it best.

He only paused momentarily as the sound of a crash and the clanking of metal flowed through the shaft, fallowed by a strong of cursing and giggling.

"Crazy little brat." Swindle chuckled to himself as he continued on his way.

* * *

**Authors Notes: **Because I wanted Swindle to have to go shaft crawling, and I wanted to write about Frenzy because he never appears enough. Not as much as Rumble anyway. And yes, I realize that some of the mechs (Mainly Onslaught's crew) aren't fully Cybertronian. He-he. Oh well.

**Disclaimer: **Transformers does not belong to me, nor do any of it's Characters.


	10. Toxic

Onslaught looked up from his reading of a data-pad, hearing a sharp _clank clatter _sound from somewhere above his head. Narrowing optics under his visor, he turned - lowering his head - and looked to their vent opening, the covering only on by a few small latches. Having heard one of the cassettes crawl over earlier, he doubted they turned back. So it had to be someone else. He glanced down to Vortex, who swung himself around, hips swinging side-to-side, head bobbing around, as he danced to some form of "Earth music". Though honestly, it just sounded like screaming and humans banging against random objects to him. But Vortex liked it, Brawl too, wasn't his place to tell them what to like and what not to like.

That's like telling Swindle not to sell Megatron's cannon should he ever managed to get his hands on it. It would go completely ignored. Or you might get shot for it.

Though he momentarily thought of trying anyhow, because quite frankly...Vortex can't dance. At all. And had nearly broken quite a few objects in the room. And had nearly fallen on him more than once from stumbling over his own feet. But it wasn't until he started singing that Onslaught _really _thought about it, covering his audios.

"You're toxic I'm slippin' under~" Vortex swung his hep to the right, swinging his head to the opposite.

"Taste of a poison paradise!" He swung each to the opposite of before, stepping to the side as he did, grin visible for he had knocked his own mask off when running into a wall earlier. It nearly took up his entire face, as he stepped side to side, back and forth, swinging his hips and head, flailing his arms, singing and dancing.

Onslaught didn't have it in him to stop him, he just looked too happy.

Well, until the cover to their shaft abruptly clattered to the floor, and Swindle fell right after it, letting out a startled cry before crashing right into Vortex, both hit the floor with a sickening _clang _that likely echoed the corridors. Onslaught visibly flinched away from it, before relaxing and looking over at the two. He tilted his head ever so slightly to the right. "You two still online?" He knew the answer, he would had panicked if he held any suspicion that either were hurt. Both knew that, and as a reply both groaned.

Vortex sat up, stood up, and dragged Swindle up, hoisting him up from under his arms and thrusting him at arms length towards Onslaught, grinning like a mad man. "Look Ons'!" Onslaught blinked at him, though it appeared hidden behind his visor. "Ain't it cute!" He drew Swindle into him, hugging the dazed smaller mech. "Can I keep him?" He swayed back and forth, like a sparkling would when cuddling a teddy. Onslaught bit his lip, holding back a snicker when Swindle went to make a protest, only to make a squeaking sound as Vortex tightened his grip.

"Squeaky toy!" Vortex cackled, Swindle backhanded him in his unmasked face. "Ow!" Vortex dropped Swindle in favor of grasping his nose. Swindle managed to land on his feet, and straightened himself, dusting himself off. He looked around, reaching and grabbing Vortex's mask and slapping it onto the mechs face, locking it manually before turning to Onslaught. "I'm borrowing him." Was all he spoke to the Gestalt leader before grabbing Vortex by the arm, dragging him to the door, shoving him out once it opened, and shoved the Copter down the hall.

Onslaught stared for a moment, shrugged, and got back to reading.

"Where're we goin'?" Vortex asked in a muffled voice, hands over his now-masked face. Swindle smiled. "To see Astrotrain! I need him to take me somewhere. Blast Off refused." Vortex hummed, Swindle continued to shove him along. He made the smaller mech work for it back leaning back slightly and not making a job of walking. "And I'm involved...why?" He tilted his head slightly to look at Swindle. "Because I need a shield." Swindle stated, plain simple and true.

Vortex hummed again, nodding.

He paused, planting his feet on the floor and forcing Swindle to walk into him from the sudden stop in motion. "Wait, what? Why do I have to play shield?" He turned to face his smaller brother. "Blast Off's bigger! He would have made a better shield! Or Onslaught, Brawl! Why me?" Swindle paused, thinking it over. He shrugged. "Because you love me and Onslaught wouldn't let me go, Brawl would want to pick a fight, and Blast Off pretty much ignores me?" Vortex sputtered indignantly for a few seconds, waving an accusing finger at Swindle.

"You owe me." He huffed, slouching his shoulders as his brothers face hadn't wavered the least bit. Swindle smiled, hugging his brother before forcing him to walk. "You know you love me." He smirked as he ushered his brother alone. Vortex huffed. "Unconditionally apparently. Considering I'm going to have to play "shield" for you from _Astrotrain_. You should consider yourself lucky."

They started on their way, until Vortex paused mid-step, causing Swindle to walk into him. "Ow." "Where _is _Astrotrain, anyway?" Vortex looked over his shoulder at Swindle, who paused his whispered swearing of a possible broken nose, and tilted his head in thought. After a moment, Swindle drew a look that led on that he had the answer, he inhaled a deep breath as he spoke; "I don't know." Vortex slumped his shoulders, and glared at his younger Gestalt brother.

Swindle just grinned, shrugged, and took a step back from his brother. "We could ask Ons?" He suggested, with a hopeless shrug. Vortex mentally groaned.

"Back to our room, then!" He pointed over Swindle's head down the hall they had just come from. Swindle mock-saluted and turned, marching back to their room with Vortex in tow.

* * *

**Authors Note: **This chapter is kinda lame, sorry about that. I wrote it a while back with an idea, but I had to take some time off, and the chapter went unfinished that day. I kind of forgot what was supposed to happen, so I wrapped it up quickly to get to the next chapter. Sorry again, next chapter will be better hopefully!

**Disclaimer: **Transformers does not belong to me, nor do any of it's Characters.


	11. Swindler Pout

A small crowd gathered in the mass hall watched warily, as two of the Combaticons had entered not long ago and split up. One heading straight for Astrotrain, the other for the Insecticons. It was never a good sign when any of the three - Combaticons, Insecticons, or Astrotrain - took to speaking with each other. And do to the eerie calmness that had filled the base as of late, it only proved more suspicious.

Especially sense it was clear Swindle - the smallest of the Combaticons - had seemingly found a way to _intimidate _Astrotrain, or so they thought. Many had fled the room the moment Astrotrain _didn't _knock Swindle on his aft when the Jeep went straight to him and started talking. It was odd, the calm before the storm no smart mech would stick around to be caught up in.

Especially when Swindle still had that little problem with his..._condition_.

"Please, Astro'?" Astrotrain looked down into Swindle's pleading purple optics, and almost instantly regretted it. When had he learned to do that? That look, that "puppy pout", it made him want to hug Swindle, and purge his tanks all (for _wanting to hug _someone) at the same time. He settled on shoving Swindle - in the face - away from himself. "No." Was added by the triple-changer soon after. Swindle pouted into his palm. "But-but..." "No, Swindle." He could _feel _that quivering lip against his hand, he quickly pulled his hand back. He didn't want to _see _the expression, let alone _feel _it. So he withdrew his hand - which easily covered Swindle's entire head - and dropped it to his side.

Big mistake, Swindle appeared to have been leaning against it, because as he drew his hand back Swindle came with it. Falling right into his lap.

He didn't react instantly, he froze at first. Swindle let out a squeak and went to move from his landing spot - only to hit his newly repaired helm on the larger mech's elbow. "Oooow! Ow ow ooww!" He face-planted with the edge of Astrotrain's chair, wrapping his hands around the sensitive, possibly bruised metal. _That _was when Astrotrain finally looked down, he didn't move to shove off Swindle, yet, instead he poked the back of the Jeep's helm. "When..." Swindle shifted to look up at him with a single, purple optic. "When did you paint your head _pink_?" Silence ensued.

Until Vortex - standing little ways away from the table chatting with the Insecticons - busted into laughter at something one of the Insecticons had said. Swindle turned onto his back in Astrotrain's lap, and pointed a finger - ironically the one connected to the arm holding his Scatter Blaster, Astrotrain mused - and frowned. "You...just now...noticed my head is _PINK_?" Astrotrain flinched slightly at the sound of Swindle's irritated voice, finding a slight similarity to Starscream in it. Well, he had to of picked up _something_ other than his Deceptive, backstabbing ways from the Seeker who rebuilt him, right? After all, Starscream practically adopted him, Seeker's never far when it comes to his "creations". Astrotrain shuttered his optics, staring at the shaking digit still pointing at him. "Well...I didn't really pay much attention to it until now..." The triple changed stated, in his defence he hadn't...at all...been paying attention to his helm...or anything else really. Except his optics, but...come on! His optics are _huge_! Especially when he's pouting or giving you that "kicked puppy" look to try and convince you to do something for him.

Megatron even "went easy" on him once, because he look scared. When that happens...you know to look out for him. Don't look him in the optics if you're trying to scare him.

It'll make you feel bad. Decepticon or not. Everyone only hated him for it, or so they said. They had to be singing a different tune when the look gave them the impulse to hug him, which seemed to be happening far more often as of late. Even Shockwave had hugged him once.

_Shockwave!_

Though he had to admit...he felt slightly intimidated by that "slit-throat" glare Swindle appeared to be giving him at the current moment. How someone so small managed to get such a fearsome look in their optics was beyond him. Same as the fact he was getting that look was because he didn't notice a _change _in his helm color. It made him feel sort of like those idiotic men who would get scolded for not noticing their girlfriends got their hair cut or something, like in those shows the Cone Heads liked watching.

Aaaaand that was a thought he shouldn't of had. Especially when the one who would be playing the role of "girlfriend" is sprawled in his _lap_, glaring at him. And there come the unwanted images. Hook would kill him if he crashed because of unwanted images caught by his own "filthy processor", Thundercracker had already done that this week, which usually left Hook moody. Especially sense he kind of has to _see _the unwanted images when they come up on the monitor while he's removing them. Poor Hook, nearly crashed right along with TC.

"Ahem." Both helms turned. Beside their table now stood Vortex, one hand on his hip and he looked over the two. Astrotrain instantly felt the need to run, this probably looked so wrong and now he had a feeling he would have overprotective Gestalt brothers out to kill him. Swindle glared at Vortex, a familiar feeling running through his circuits.

Vortex is _smirking _behind that mask, he could just _feel _it.

"Damn, Swindle," A slight chuckle echoed his words. "I knew you were desperate to get him to take us but...damn. I thought you had more pride than this." He shook his head slowly. Now both Swindle and Astrotrain were glaring at him.

Yep, he was _definitely _smiling behind that mask now, both could tell.

"You could have probably convinced Blast Off to take you...this way." He motioned with his hands - both hands - towards them. "But if ya have a thing for triple changers, that's fine too. Whatever "floats yer boat" as the humans say!" Snickering ensued from around the room, many of the remaining mechs scattering and heading out the door. "Didn't know Astrotrain would take _payments _like this, though." They glared daggers at him, he went unaffected. "Swindle and Astrotrain! _Scandalous_~" This time, it was Astrotrain who reacted first. Quickly shoving Swindle off, he stood. Swindle made no protest about being shoved when he stood, and stood at Astrotrain's side, glaring his older brother down. Vortex giggled. "Though I do admit, you two would make a _cute _coup-" Battle cries echoed the mass hall, making many of the remaining mechs startle.

Vortex spun on his heel, and sprang into action - sprinting for the exit. Swindle and Astrotrain on his tail. The Copter-former quickly entered the code, and the door swished open. He didn't make it out however. Swindle tackled him, and Astrotrain dragged him back in, kicking and screaming. The Insecticons sat at the far end of the mass hall, sipping their Energon and watching the show.

"I wish my wings came off like Vortex's...must be easier to fit into places where they block the way."

"But...his rotors don't come off..."

"...Oh..."

"...Ouch..._ouch_..."

* * *

**Authors Notes: **Yeah, I defined the Insecticons by calling them _Insecticons _because I kinda can't remember their names, and didn't have Internet when I wrote this chapter, I did re-write parts of it just now, but didn't alter it much otherwise because it started to make less sense. Sorry this is late! I finished this chapter a while back, but kept forgetting to post it, my computer keeps coming close to crashing so Internet time has been limited. Got a new computer, haven't set it up yet. But once it's up hopefully I can get this updated quicker. A warning though, this is going to be a somewhat long story! Due to all the little "side stories" I have. It will start getting more serious later on, probably. Plenty of violence coming soon! Oh wait, we already have violence. DETAILED VIOLENCE coming soon! Ha-ha~

Also, a friend of mine who reads this asked me about pairings, I have plenty of "hinted" pairings just for fun, but I figured if enough of my readers wanted certain pairings, I wouldn't mind writing them. So, anyone want to see some pairings in the future? I'll go with about any pairing if enough people agree to it! Autobot pairings too if you wish, they will be appearing soon enough. Or Autobot/Decepticon pairings. I don't know, just tell me what you want. Any characters~ Seriously, this story isn't really set in a certain time-line or anything, so I could probably work any in someway or another.

**Disclaimer: **Transformers does not belong to me, nor do any of it's Characters.


	12. Big Red Buttons

Vortex _glared _at his younger Gestalt brother, who now slept - quite peacefully, judging by his relaxed and content expression - in the so-called "drivers seat" of Astrotrain's shuttle alt. After they had ripped off _three _of his _four _rotors, Hook had decided that, and he could quote; "If your just going to get them ripped off and come complaining to me to fix it when you brought it on yourself, I'm just going to _remove them_." And had then knocked Vortex out removed his rotors. Needless to say Vortex was _pissed_, Hook was _deaf to him_, and Swindle spent the few hours he was awake after convincing Astrotrain to take them to his "planet fair/black market" being guilt tripped by the Copter- former copter- former. Or would it be half copter? His alt was still the same, just rotor-less.

Either way, Swindle easily fell into a peaceful recharge despite Vortex's complaining. He blamed it either on his still healing damaged, or the fact that flying seem to just know him out. He did have a habit of falling asleep while flying, it's been proved time and time again while being carried by Vortex. Flying just seems to lull him into recharge. It would normally be cute, but not right now. Not while he had to sit alone, in silence, with an anti-social smart aft triple-changer. Unable to move around or fly. Swindle wasn't awake enough to talk to, it got boring.

This is all boring.

He's so _bored!_

Vortex and bored don't mix. Bad things happen. And Swindle would have woken from the feeling of "disaster" in the air if he weren't such a slagging _deep sleeper_! Astrotrain was awake though, and could feel the increasing sense of dread in the vastness of space. It made him tempted to dump the flyer, but he would dump Swindle too, and so far the Jeep-former had yet to get on his nerves. In fact, he'd acted overly friendly today.

Another reason he felt uneasy. But a sleeping Swindle is a harmless Swindle...unless you wake him.

"I'm bored." Vortex grumbled, earning nothing but a flash of various lights and buttons as a reply from Astrotrain. It didn't better his mood. _Not. At. All. _Damn Swindle for his falling-asleep-while-flying problem, and Astrotrain for his I'm-better-than-you-and-too-awesome-to-talk ego. He glared at the console, pretty much the only think he could think to glare at aside from cameras. But glaring at those would require him to move, and he didn't feel like moving.

_Lazy aft_.

He could just hear Swindle laughing. He turned to glare at his sleeping Brother, who's lips twitched a bit, Vortex half expected him to smirk. Instead he just mumbled something incoherent and turned his back to his brother. Again, that would be cute if he weren't so _slaggin' bored_! He slammed his fist into the console in irritation and boredom, Astrotrain let out a _squeak _and tumbled off course a bit, throwing Vortex out of his chair.

Swindle didn't budge, slaggin' Jeep apparently was smart enough to buckle up. Being in space Vortex had seen no reason in it. _"What are we gonna need 'em for? Just in case we hit a space bump?" _Had been his reply to Swindle when he warned him about buckling up once they had taken off. He glared at the Jeep from his upside down position across the room against the door leading to the deck.

With a grunt, he slid to the side and landed painfully on his hip. He shuffled and stood, and walked back over to the console.

Astrotrain finally got his head back at that, deciding to finally let it be known he was - in fact - able to _speak_.

"The Pit, Vortex!" He snarled. "Don't do that! Do you want to knock us off course and have us _crash _into something?" Vortex seated himself without reply, buckling himself in. "Are you insane? No wait, stupid question! Of _course _you're insane!" Fastening his seat-belts, and checking them twice, a devilish smirk crossed over his faceplate, hidden by his mask. He tuned out Astrotrain's scolding, and leaned over the console, eying a particularly shiny, large, red button...

Swindle chose that time to slowly online, he groggily sat upright and looked around. He looked to Vortex and shuttered his optics and few times.

The last thing Astrotrain or Swindle computed was Vortex's gleeful cry of; "What's _this _button do!"

And the sound of their own screams over the grounded flyers cackling.

* * *

**Author:** Thanks for the reviews everyone! I really enjoy reading them! I'm going to go through later chapters soon and fix all errors, feel free to point them out! It helps, and I won't bite! Promise! About the story; Let this be a lesson to you, kids! Don't push the BIG RED BUTTONS! Always trouble. I am so, so sorry about this chapter. Everyone has their "off" days, when muse is low and writing becomes strained and makes no sense. Mine was when I wrote this, I will try and make the next chapter make up for this one. Also, I note this has a lot of plot holes. Sorry about that, I'm not exactly the most experienced writer out there...Also, this may get confusing soon. I'm going to have a...eh..."scene cut" so to say. We're going to be leaving Swindle, Vortex, and Astrotrain for a teeny bit. Just a warning! Hope you enjoyed the chapter so far.

**Disclaimer: **Transformers does not belong to me, nor to any of it's Characters.


	13. Infestation

There were few - very few - things Astrotrain and Swindle agreed on, but this was one of them.

_Vortex _is a _moron._

Of course, Swindle had still been a big groggy sense he woke up right when Vortex decided to take them on a joy ride, banging on random buttons and pulling randoms levers, in the end Astrotrain spiraled out of control, unable to get Vortex to stop, unable to get Swindle - who was panicked and confused - to help. They had screamed - though they would forever _swear _Vortex was _cackling _- as they spiraled through space, the panic, and frantic attempts to regain control, Astrotrain ran all his energy out trying _not to crash_, only to end up crashing from the lack of said energy. The planet they crashed on wasn't pretty.

Astrotrain had been the only one to take any real damage, having transformers when they hit, the other two landed on the ground as he dropped them and toppled around. He crashed into quite a few rocks send he dropped them and kept on going, unable to stop. The rocks stopped him, and it hurt like the Pit. But the damage wasn't severe. Swindle got a bit of motion sickness, seemed to _still _be groggy, and now irritated to boot. He sat little ways from Astrotrain - who had decided moving was a bad idea, and had thus used the rocks as a makeshift "chair" - his knees pulled to his chest, as he swayed a bit, trying to keep his tanks from purging. He eventually fell onto his bad with a sickened groan.

Astrotrain suspected the only reason Swindle hadn't set off on Vortex yet was probably due to the fact he was sick and dazed.

Speaking of their copter crack-case, he had cackled a little longer before wondering over to check on Swindle, who ignored him completely. He then wondered over to Astrotrain just to turn on his heel and walk away when the triple changer shot him a glare. Now he was off wondering around doing Primus-knows-what, on the excuse that he was going to try and find an area where their comm. would work, or perhaps something they could siphon into Energon. Both seemed very unlikely, but then again this day just kept getting better and better. It could be the mood induced by that making him think this way.

He glanced over to Swindle, the Jeep hadn't moved sense taking up the position of lying on his back. But seemed content with mumbling curses, seemingly towards Vortex judging by the occasional "'Tex" that could be heard. Eventually, though, Swindle slowly sat up, stumbled to his feet, and limped his way over to Astrotrain. Watching him, the triple-changed just _waited _for the smaller 'Con to fall, he looked like he would _any moment_. The slightest breeze would probably cause his balance to waver. What little balance he had.

He felt a pang of pity, and was tempted to offer to help. Then he realized that this was Swindle.

And if he did he would be shot in the face with a Scatter Blaster.

Or maybe not.

"Need help?" Swindle paused in his wavering half-walk have-limp and looked up at the triple changer. They stared at eachother for a moment, Astrotrain waiting to see if he would be rejected, accepted, or have to dodge a shot. Swindle shot him a cocky grin. "Nah." It unnerved him for some reason when Swindle made that face. "I'm not as helpless as I may look." Be it to prove a point, or just to be stubborn, Swindle started his pace again, albeit a bit quicker. Astrotrain watched him warily. Though, soon enough he was meters away from Astrotrain, he plopped himself on the ground, placed his hands in his lap, and grinned at his fellow 'Con.

"So," His grin grew a devious glint to it, and he cocked his head to the side. "Revenge on Vortex. How should it be done?" Astrotrain looked taken aback at this, but soon enough an expression to rival Swindle's appeared. "We're on a mud-ball. Vortex has a particular..._issue _with mud, correct?" A brief nod from Swindle confirmed this. The gave him a slightly withered grin. "If he gets muddy he'll track it all in you when we leave, though." The golden 'Con pointed out. Astrotrain frowned, yeah, true. And mud inside his alt mode made him feel weird and sick.

New plan.

Vortex bounded back about that time, a top speeds. In fact, he collided with Astrotrain - which barley budged the triple-changed, and only resulted in Vortex falling on his aft. Swindle and Astrotrain looked down at the flyer now flat on his back. He held up a finger, waving it excitedly in the air. Both pairs of optics locked on the digit. "I found _life_!" Vortex stated, in a high-pitched, overly happy- possibly deviously insane voice. Swindle and Astrotrain looked back to his masked face, raising optic ridges in unison.

"Life?" Swindle frowned, there _is _water on this planet, but not much on the side of oxygen. Maybe fish? No, more mud than water really. Not deep enough for fish. "What kind of life?" Astrotrain piped from his relaxed position against the rocks. Both tensed, not quite expected Vortex's reply. His chipper, happy, accomplished reply of;

"_Worms_!"

They could do nothing but stare at him.

Until he started cackling again, that just made them both uncomfortable. "Worms?" Swindle asked, eying his brother. Vortex sat up quickly, almost connecting helms with Swindle. "Not _just worms_," He waved his hands into the air. "HUGE worms! Bigger than slagging _Omega_!" That got their attention again. They both gave him confused, disbelieving, and slightly worried looks. Worms bigger than Omega Supreme? They hoped he was exasperating. Giant aliens worms, movies clearly stated those weren't a good thing. It unnerved the two.

Vortex couldn't look any happier - unless...you know...you removed his mask and could see his face.

"Except for these ones..." Vortex trusted out his hand, clanking Swindle in the helm. He earned a growl, until his opened his hand and dumped a handful of mud and tiny _worms _on him. Tiny to them anyways, probably _huge _to humans. Swindle picked one off his face, held it in his palm and eyed it warily. It moved. "Ew." He made a face at it, and Vortex giggled. Astrotrain leaned down, looking at the red, blue, and black little..._parasite_. He reached down, poking it slightly, it curled then - slightly to their shock - quickly crawled away.

Into the joints of Swindle's hands and under his armor.

There was a pause, everyone stared at his hand, then Vortex and Astrotrain looked to his face. Wide violet optics stared down at his now empty palm. He could _feel _the worm in his circuits. He twitched, the ones on his helm curling into places as well. He remained calm, however. Best not to panic, right? Best not to panic. Not to panic.

One curled under and fell inside his optics.

"OH MY PRIMUS GET 'EM OUT! OUT! OFFA ME! OUT! OFF! I CAN FEEL THEM CRAWLING AROUND INSIDE OF ME! EEWWW!"

At least they couldn't do any real damage to the Jeep, unless he hurt himself from his panicking and running around as if his aft was on fire.

Vortex cackled.

Astrotrain sighed and flicked one of the nearby worms that had fallen off of Swindle far, far away from himself.

* * *

**Authors Notes: **I feel the need to torture characters I love sometimes. Poor Swindle. You all know Vortex did that on purpose. You do. Don't deny it. I'm sure Swin' will be fine. Probably. Possibly. You'll have to wait and see.

**Disclaimer: **Transformers does not belong to me, nor do any of it's Characters.


	14. Planet Gook

"'Tex," Swindle, from his position propped against one of Astrotrain's Indian-style crossed legs, hummed. "How come Astro' and I have got worms in our system - Astro' didn't even _touch _any - but you don't. When you _carried _them here?" Swindle narrowed his optics at the smiling, rotor-less copter. "Oh, but I do have some in my armor, too!" He grinned, and visibly shivered. "Tingly~"

They gawked at him, before Astrotrain scooted away from the Copter, Swindle doing the same. He propped himself - again - against Astrotrain's legs and eyed his Gestalt Brother, before returning the the task of attempting to purge his circuitry of the gooey organic infestation. He had found out - first hand - that overheated systems that are the result of panicking, don't mesh well with worms. In fact, no, it does. Which is why Swindle now has a nice, gooey mesh of sticky organic slime in his wiring, making his joints stick, gear jam, and over all just making him feel _gross._

Astrotrain had been "infected" - as the triple changed had dubbed it - by Swindle. It was an accident, hence the reason Swindle isn't currently slagged. But he, too, discovered the result of overheated systems and slimy organics. And was currently ignoring Swindle in favor of trying to get his _own _organic goo from his _own _circuitry. Which - in a case similar to Swindle's - was not going well. And he proved so when he pulled a loose panel of his arm off, and it stretched a nice, messy trail of organic with it.

Swindle glanced up, paused, and found he couldn't look away. Astrotrain seemed to be having a similar case, he looked horrified at the slime as it slowly collapsed on itself, slowly slinking it's way off his armor and to the ground, leaving behind a trail of blue, red, and silvef goo. Both heads slowly fallowed as it made it's way down, touched the ground, and slowly broke off slimy strands to collapse there in a rather large pile of glowing, colorful goo.

"EEWWW!" Swindle flailed, shifting away from the mess and practically crawling into Astrotrain's lap. "That's so _wrong!_" He shrieked, face twisted in disgust and horror. Astrotrain shifted to look to the side with a face that said he was about ready to purge his tanks. "How did I even get enough to cause such a mess in me from a simple _touch_?" He shifted fully away from it as well, Swindle now sitting _on _his right leg, rather than against them. He made a hiccuping sound, then cleaned out what was left of the goo in his arm before placing the panel back with a sickeningly loud _squelch._

Swindle made a gagging sound, Astrotrain swallowed some Energon threatening to come up, and Vortex cackled.

"That's na~asty~" He giggled as he pulled one of the longer worms out from under his own armor and dangled it between in index finger and thumb, watching as it squirmed. Before tossing it towards Swindle and Astrotrain, who quickly scrambled to get as far away from it as possible, ignoring Vortex's laughing at them as they did so. Swindle - tired of Vortex already - scooped up the "mud" that _is _the planet's ground, and pitched it at Vortex. Too busy laughing to notice, the rotor-less copter got a face and mouth full of the greenish-brown muck.

He choked for a moment, still giggling. The sound from his giggling through the muck made it sound more like he was gargling the stuff, rather than laughing through it.

Astrotrain scooped up his own muck, along with the "worm goo" he'd just prized from his armor, and pitched it angrily at the laughing Combaticon. It landed with a splat, as the copter went tumbling backwards. Astrotrain smirked, shaking the remains of the goo and muck from his hands as Swindle busted out laughing. Vortex flailed for a few moments, before finally getting the sense to try and clean the muck from his face. He reached up and scooped some off with his hand, the goo forming a long strand that trailed down with his hand.

It made a _pop _as he slung it off to the side.

Swindle halted in his laughter, placing both hands over his mouth as he made a strange, strangled sound. He spun around, Astrotrain having the sense to quickly move out the way as he grabbed onto the rock for support, leaned over, and purged his tanks. Vortex shook his head, smirking at his Gestalt brother as he continued to clean his faceplate off. Astrotrain patted the smaller mech on the back awkwardly, able to understand the feeling, having felt sick only moments ago himself.

Swindle stood straight, wiping some of the Energon from his lip components as he turned back around.

Vortex chose that time to sling some more of the much and good off, it hit the rock near Swindle, splattering green-brown, silver and purple over the two nearby.

Swindle hiccuped and spun back around.

* * *

**Authors Notes: **We learn two things this chapter. One, Vortex is a creeper (of course we all already knew that, I'm sure). And two, Astrotrain doesn't seem to mind people using his legs as cushions. But considering his size and all, it probably happens more often than we think it does. That or he just doesn't care, or is two concerned with the goo in his systems.

Promise next chapter they will get their revenge on him for this.

**Disclaimer: **Transformers does not belong to me, nor do any of it's Characters.


	15. On Purpose

Time had passed sense their landing on this planet, a day it seemed. The warm company of the sun long gone, it finally faded away to abandon them in the dark, with only the mild glow of their optics to keep the darkness away. Wasn't much, far beyond enough. Swindle shifted slightly in his position against Astrotrain's right side, Vortex wondered off a while ago, while the sun was still lighting this mucky rock. He had yet to return, which made Swindle more uncomfortable. Astrotrain fell into recharge only moments ago, optics powered down, systems smooth, near silent in their dormant state. The light rumble of the triple-changers engine being the only sound in Swindle's audio receptors, he tried focusing on it, powering down his own optics to try and forget the fact he sat in total darkness, unable to see anything.

His sensors were sloppy at the moment, the cause of some of that "gook" he had gotten in his systems from the worms. Everything looked...weird when it came to his heat sensors, or motion sensors. Made him feel kind of queasy. He had stopped trying to bother using them sense his optics were momentary useless without the aid of the sun. He was beginning to wish he had some of those Earth "night vision" goggles. He vented a sigh, unable to fall into recharge for some reason.

He knew sparks couldn't leap into your throat, so the saying probably wouldn't work. But it sure _felt _like it had when Astrotrain suddenly moved. Having remained perfectly still, Swindle had stopped really paying attention, thinking more on when Vortex might get back. Where he was. The sudden movement nearly scared his spark out of it's chamber. Glancing over his shoulder, he could clearly see the triple-changer was still deep in recharge. With a sigh, and a frown, he turned and settled himself back against Astrotrain's side. At least he wasn't leaning against his legs...probably would have been kicked by now.

Powering down his optics again, he decided recharge would probably be best. He shifted slightly, leaning his head against Astrotrain's side, and attempted to let his systems calm down and recharge for a while. He would need the energy anyways, today had been a long day so far.

Astrotrain shifted slightly, Swindle ignored it. He did so again, and the smaller mech ignored it still. The third time got a reaction, for he leaned into - and somewhat _over _- Swindle as he, again, shifted. So reluctantly Swindle pushed himself off, looked expecting to see a half-awake Triple changer. Astrotrain shifted slightly again, still in recharge. And why that didn't surprise Swindle? He didn't care. He shoved the triple changed back to his side slightly, as best he could considering the size difference, then went back to curling up and attempting to recharge.

Astrotrain shifted again, and this time slide against the rocks surface.

Swindle barley had time to react to the sudden movement, as Astrotrain fell. He reacted as quickly as he could, moving so he couldn't be crushed by the larger mech. He managed to dodge the bulk of Astrotrain's body, luckily.

Not his arm, however.

He found himself on his stomach, with an arm over his back. Pinning him to the ground. The moist, mucky ground. Usually he wouldn't care, this happens to him alot. Mainly when it comes to recharging near Brawl. Because _no one _tosses and turns as much as Brawl. And the tank had this nasty habit of pinning you down. And Vortex would use anyone he managed to get a hold of while in recharge as a pillow, or something to snuggle. Blast Off wasn't really a toss and turn type of mech. And Onslaught rarely ever slept...at least not where anyone could see. So Swindle didn't know about him.

Sure, he'd slept near Onslaught a ton of times, mainly on missions. But he's never seen the other actually _sleep_. Not unless he went into recharge once everyone else did, and somehow managed to wake up before everyone else. But then again, Swindle wouldn't put it past their Commander to be able to do that. Something else to add to the list of; "Things Onslaught can do that should be impossible for anyone, even giant robots from outer-space, to do.'

Either way, usually he wouldn't mind this sort of thing.

But now he was face first in creepy, icky, worm infested muck. So yeah, he minded.

He struggled, trying to get himself up right, and lift his face from the muck. No such luck. Instead his hands slid out from under him, and he landed face first in it again. He could feel the substance push itself into his joints, mainly ground his jaw and optics. He decided painfully taking out his optics to - once again - clean the circuitry below wasn't something he wanted to experience. Again. For the third time today. So with an irritated, muffled growl, he twisted and pointed his right arm to the left of Astrotrain.

His Scatter Blaster hummed as it came online.

But Astrotrain shifted, moving his legs he kneed Swindle in the arm, his blaster powered down as it was submerged in muck, weight down by Astrotrain's knee. "Arg! What are the _chances _of him doing that!" The triple-changer was mow curling into a ball. Bringing his knees up near his chest, along with his arms. But, of course, things never went Swindle's way. So instead of him just moving his arm and leaving the smaller Decepticon there, he dragged him along the muck under his hand. Fingers curled slightly around Swindle's chassis, he was cursing the world as Astrotrain pulled a Vortex on him.

He found himself pressed against the larger mechs chest, both arms wrapped around him as if he were some...toy.

"Awww~" And of course, Vortex chooses _now _to show up!

Swindle glared up, catching sight of a glowing red visor, and white dental formed in a grin. He heard a cackle as Vortex moved towards them. "Ha! It's like you and Brawl all over again, only now your glaring at me instead, and Astrotrain is the one who's hugging." He stopped close enough for Swindle to be able to make him out slightly among the shadows, grin ever present. He shifted. "Aw, I want a hug too!" He held out his arms.

A few worms fell from his hands.

'"AUGH NO!" Swindle backed up as best he could, pressing close to Astrotrain. "GET THOSE AWAY! GO AWAY!" Vortex grinned wider, and took a step forward. But stopped, and started cackling. "Fine, fine! I won't "infect" you again!" He shook his hands, scattering the worms he had probably been carrying here. Swindle again tried to back away, but found himself unable to get any farther do to the mech behind him.

Who mumbled in his recharge and shifted slightly.

"I'm taking pictures of this." Vortex grinned his visor flashed. Swindle cursed, and started flailing. "Vortex I am going to KILL YOU!" Vortex cackled yet again. "Now if you can't reach me!" He teased, waving his feet just beyond Swindle's reach.

As if to spite him, on cue to that tease Astrotrain suddenly reached out, wrapping his free hand (the one NOT holding Swindle), and dragged Vortex in. Grabbing him by the legs, Vortex toppled backwards, his head hitting the muck with a loud _splat_. Muck went flying up in the air, Vortex had not time to react as he was suddenly pulled into a death grip by Vortex, hugged to his chest in a similar to Swindle.

Just a _lot _tighter.

He squirmed, a bit disoriented from the sudden movement. Swindle frowned, and lifted his right hand. He brought it up quickly in Vortex's direction.

Successfully hitting Vortex in the head with it's barrel.

"Ow..." Vortex shook his head, unable to do much else in his pinned state. How come Swindle had an arm free but his were pinned?

Swindle looked up at Astrotrain, raising an optic ridge. "What were the chances of you grabbing him at that precise moment..." He narrowed his optics as Astrotrain's head shifted slightly.

Swindle blinked, and leaned to get a better look at Astrotrain's face. He held no emotion, just a relaxed expression... Weird...he could have sworn he just...hm. He shrugged, powered down his optics, and again attempted to go into recharge. Vortex glanced up, and oh he didn't miss it.

"Why you son of a glitch..." He said with a smirk. Astrotrain shifted again, turning his head from the two.

And he _smirked_ yet again.

* * *

**Authors Notes: **Sorry, this was half written, and I finished it today. But the ending is kind of rushed! So sorry it's not very good. I'll try and make up for it on the next chapter! And in case you didn't catch it...

Astrotrain's been awake the entire time.

**Disclaimer: **Transformers does not belong to me, nor do any of it's Characters.


	16. Smushed

_::Swindle::_

When Swindle came back online, the first this he realized is that he didn't realize he'd even fallen into recharge.

_::Swindle::_

The second thing he realized is that he was very, _very _hungry.

_::Swindle:: _

The third was that he seemed to be snuggled comfortably against Astrotrain's side, the triple changers arm draped lazily over him as he recharge beside him. His engines humming contently as he rested.

_::SWINDLE!:: _

And with a start, nearly jumping out of his armor, the fourth thing he realized is that Vortex was screaming at him through their short-range comm. So wearily, and still half in recharge, Swindle lifted his arm and opened him comm. He was met with black, not sign of Vortex. But he could hear the copter speak. "What...?" He asked tiredly, rubbing thoughtlessly at his optics. He slowly sat up, turning slowly to lean against Astrotrain. He vented a sigh, which came out as more of a yawn if anything.

"Swindle." Vortex's voice growled over the black screen. Swindle blinked lazily at it, and tilted his head ever-so-slightly to the right. "Hm?" He didn't have the Energy to speak. Too tired. "Do me a favor, will ya?" He tilted his head over to the left, and slowly nodded. "M'kay..." He shifted, considering standing, and pushing the idea aside. "Tell Astrotrain..." A paused, more of a dramatic silence. Swindle leaned closer to the comm. without thinking. Vortex snarled.

"TO GET HIS AFT OFFA ME!"

Swindle jumped, startled by the sudden loud sound. He blinked a few times, and gave his comm. a confused look. "Wh-what?" He wasn't sure he had heard that right, and just wanted to make sure before he woke up Astrotrain and possibly got a cranky triple changer in return. "GET HIM OFF OF ME!" Vortex snarled, making Swindle jump yet again. Yep, he heard right the first time. But he had to do something before attempting to wake the moody triple changer.

A grin split across his face. optics brightening clearly as he came a bit more out of his tired haze. He didn't bother deactivating the comm. he tilted his head back...

And howled with laughter.

Vortex growled at him, he could hear it. And it also solved the fact he couldn't see Vortex, the copter probably wasn't even able to look at his comm. Too busy being crashed under a Triple changer. Swindle continued to laugh, calming down a few minutes later just to start laughing harder. By now he had completely fallen against Astrotrain for support to keep from toppling into the muck. It didn't keep him from sliding down, though, covered with muck from the thigh down, he was too busy laughing to care.

A roar from Vortex, he stifled his fit, and turned to Astrotrain. Grin still spread across his faceplate. He tapped him on the arm, and got no reaction. Chuckling, he hit him on the arm a bit harder than needed. But it still didn't wake him, he didn't even flinch. Swindle's smile faded, replaced with a slightly annoyed frown. He all but punched him in the arm. Again, nothing. With a raised optic ridge, he glanced up at Astrotrain's relaxed faceplate. And frowned.

Slowly, carefully, he climbed into the triple changers lap, tilted his right arm up, and tap the bottom of Astrotrain's chin with it's barrel. He shifted his head to the side slightly, a frown formed on the triple changers faceplate as he shifted his position. Vortex grunted over the comm. "Owwww! Don't let him twist around!" Swindle chuckled lightly, but went serious again. He doubted he could wake Astrotrain is Vortex's screaming didn't. But might as well try.

"Astrotrain." He spoke normally, tapping him on the chest. No response. "Astrotrain~" He spoke in a sing-song voice, ever so gently. Astrotrain shifted slightly, nothing else. Swindle's right optic twitched a bit, he reached up and grabbed a hold of Astrotrain's shoulder, digging his fingers into a seam in the armor and pulling himself up. Wrapping his arm around Astrotrain's lower neck, he dangled slightly and leaned near Astrotrain's audios with a gentle smile.

"ASTROTRAIN!"

Astrotrain shrieked like a femme, jumping to his feet and knocking Swindle off his shoulder. Swindle yelped, but found his landing oddly dry. He glanced down, and smiled sheepishly at a very angry looking Vortex, whom had just unintentionally broken his landing. But the sheepishness wore off, and soon enough he was grinning, both hands placed firmly over his mouth to try and stifle his chuckled. He quickly got off his Gestalt brother.

Vortex must have been sat on for a while, because he was pushed pretty deep in the mud. Only about an inch or two of his chest sticking out, the rest had muck squished up around it. The only thing left dry was his chassis and faceplate. Which had quite a few specks of muck on them as well. Swindle decided staring wouldn't help him not laugh, so he looked to the groggy Astrotrain to his left.

Astrotrain blinked a few times, dazed, before finally looking down, rubbing his sensitive audio absently. He caught one look at Vortex, and started giggling.

Vortex shot him a glare, all his weaponry too mucky to work properly. Soon enough he had Swindle giggling. And far too soon both were stumbling around, trying not to loose balance and get mucky in their laughing fits. Vortex glared, pulling himself out - with a bit of trouble - of the muck. When he finally, slowly got the last bit of his back loose, the sudden loss of connection between metal and muck gave a loud _pop_, and Vortex went falling forward from the loose of grip on him.

It only made Swindle and Astrotrain laugh harder.

"Yeah yeah, laugh while you can. I'm gonna kill you both when I get this junk out of my systems." He grumbled, picking at some of the drier muck in his joints.

The two calmed down pretty quickly after that, and Astrotrain sat back down. Swindle frowned, and climbed up on the rock formation Astrotrain favored as a chair. Once to the top he looked around, standing only a few feet above Astrotrain's standing height. Shielding his optics from the sun, he glanced around the terrain. Nothing but muck for mile, it seemed. He turned, looking in a different direction. Aaaand muck. With a huff, he turned completely around, facing his back towards the other two and looking off behind the formation.

Muck. Muck. Giant Worm. Muck. More muck.

Wait.

* * *

**Authors Notes: **...I didn't do that in purpose. I just wanted to switch it into more of a Astrotrain point of view. Figured it might get confusing if I did it in the same chapter. I dunno.

So you get...A CLIFFJUMP-I mean CLIFFHANGER!

Until next time!

8D

**Disclaimer: **Transformers does not belong to me, nor do any of it's Characters.


	17. Little Big

Astrotrain ignored Swindle as he climbed up, yeah, completely ignored the little bugger. Even when he accidentally used the triple changers helm as leverage up to the top of his busied himself with watching Vortex try - and fail - to get muck out from between his gears. It was amusing, not that it wasn't him in that situation. The wingless copter-former flailed his right hand in an attempt to dislodge some goo and muck from it, only succeeding in splattering it all over his helm.

Then again he didn't find it funny when it was Swindle, either. He frowned at that, he'd always had a sort of..."soft spot" for the smaller mech. He didn't know why, maybe had something to do with his love for "small and cute things". That's probably what Blitzwing would tell him. After laughing in his face about having a soft spot for anyone - especially a Combaticon. And _especially _Swindle. So few liked Swindle, which was understandable. In fact, the only few who did seemed to be the Combaticons (excluding Brawl, who would shoot you if you even hinted a possible like for his little brother which everyone obviously knew he had in there somewhere), Starscream and his Trine (which is understandable, kind of), Soundwave (which makes no sense...at all...whatsoever...), Shockwave (which, again, makes no sense. Everyone assumes it has something to do with a possible trade/sell they might of had. Or because Swindle tends to be as much of a creeper as Shockwave sometimes), and himself.

Oh, and don't forget Soundwave's brats. They tend to like Swindle too, though Rumble and Frenzy for dealing purposes (they had to get their prank supplies from _somewhere)_, Ravage just...acts like...well no one if sure, really. That cat's so bi-polar. Ratbat is small and cute. Small and cute mechs seem to stick together. Plus Swindle thinks he's small and cute, and Swindle likes small cute things too. Lazerbeak? No one knows. Because Swindle tends to tease him a bit. He doesn't ever seem bothered.

But then again Lazerbeak likes Starscream, too. That bird's just wacky.

Astrotrain was now frowning, glaring at the ground. Come to think of it, ever sense Swindle took that hit to the head and became more...well...emotional. He's been liking the mech a bit more. Plus he hadn't really tried to..."swindle" him lately. In fact, the most he did when they bumped into each-other was a cheerful "Hiya" or a grouchy "Watch it", that or nothing as all as he continued on his way. The Jeep had also taken up calling him "Astro", which wasn't unusual considering his long name. But most mechs would have been punched out for saying it to his face.

Except for Blitzwing, Starscream, or Shockwave. Blitzwing let him call him "Blitz'", do he let him call him "Astro". Starscream would null-ray him. Null-rays to the face hurt. A lot. And Shockwave is already creepy enough to make everyone too creeped out to care what they call him, in fear that he might stalk them and plot his revenge. Plus he's on Cybertron, a bit beyond arms reach. And he's _creepy_! Creepiest creepy creeper of all of the Galaxies creepers!

_Creepy enough to not mess with!_

The only 'Cons or 'Bots he doesn't completely creep our are Megatron (and Megatron has given signs of being creeped out by him before...), Starscream (the dude can't be creeped out by anything, it seems), and Soundwave (actually...Soundwave has stated once before that Shockwave kind of unnerves him). And of course Swindle. But Swindle, like Starscream, isn't really easy to creep out when it comes to others bots. Besides, if he admitted that someone creeped him out, word might spread and ruin business for him. So even if Shockwave did creep him out, he would never admit or show it.

He was pulled from his thoughts when something bounced off his head. Without much thought on it, he reached out and caught the small rock in his hand. With a frown he shifted and looked up to tell Swindle to stop hitting him in the helm. He didn't get the chance, a pede suddenly landed him square in the face, blocking view from his optics. But as soon as it touched down it was off again, he felt the mech land on his right knee, before again the weight was gone.

Now irritated, Astrotrain looked to see Swindle's retreating back.

"Swindle!" Vortex, who had been trying to clean some muck from his neck joint, jumped when Astrotrain yelled, looking over at them. "IT'S HUUUUGE! WE'RE ALL GONNA DIIIIE! IT'S GOING TO EEEEAT US! I DON'T WANNA BE EATEN!" Swindle screamed, running as fast as his legs could carry him in his weakened state. Astrotrain stood up, stumbled forward, and set a confused expression on Vortex. Who shrugged, made a face, twitched, and was suddenly running after his brother without a single word to the triple changer.

Astrotrain blinked, confused, and watched the two retreating forms. One was a (surprisingly) fast moving Swindle, the other was Vortex little ways behind, stumbling around for some reason.

Both seemed in a hurry.

Astrotrain sighed, and started walking in their direction. A chill ran down his back, and he paused. That feeling seemed familiar, he didn't like it. And he had the feeling he shouldn't look. But, of course, he did anyways.

Ever so slowly, he turned to look over his shoulder. And up. At the large creature hovering menacingly behind, small beady black eyes locked on him, the silver creature shifted to the side, reminding Astrotrain briefly of an Earth Snake he'd seen on television once. He didn't need much else aside from what sudden memory clip to get his legs moving. He ran quickly after the others, the creature letting out a sound similar to a hiss (yet again, a snake comes to mind) and started after them.

Mucky ground rumbling beneath it.

He could hear Swindle's screaming over their comm. frequency.

::Primus I think I preferred the ones that melted into icky sticky goo under my armoooor!::

He had to agree with that. At least they couldn't swallow him whole.

* * *

**Authors Notes: **...I don't even remember writing this chapter...

**Disclaimer: **Transformers does not belong to me, nor do any of it's Characters.


	18. It's Hereditary

"I'm going to die. Going to die. Diiiie I tell you. DIIIIIIIE!" Swindle was quite aware that he had "glitched" again by this point. He wasn't usually this panicky, in any situation, or crying about dieing. That's Breakdown's job. He's acting like Breakdown. Swindle doesn't like the idea of acting like Breakdown. But fighting an emotional glitch isn't easy, so he ignored the fact he was acting crazy in favor of the fact it was making him run faster, despite low energy levels. He knew it wouldn't last, but hey, it's working at the moment.

He's got no complaints about that.

Vortex didn't seem to be having a good time, though. In fact, from what Swindle could see the few moments he risked to look back, Vortex's muck problem was causing running to be awkward. Amusing, but awkward. Astrotrain and the worm/snake thing seemed to be catching up to hims quickly, or he was slowing down. For a brief moment, Swindle contemplated stopping to help. It was quickly pushed aside. No, he wasn't risking getting eaten. Preferably it would eat the other two and be too full for desert.

But he stopped to think on how he planned to get home.

Still didn't stop running though, decided to think about it later.

He could practically hear Vortex screaming at him for not giving them a warning when Astrotrain finally caught up to the rotor-less Copter, Mech-eating worm right on his tailpipe. He really _could _hear Astrotrain yelling at him over their short-range comm. Or was he screaming at Vortex? He wasn't using names so much as the word "Combaticon" excessively. ::You couldn't give a little more _warning_? I'm going to _offline you _if we survive this!:: Technically both had seen it, neither had warned him, so it could be either one of them getting yelled at.

Vortex seemed to be having fun though, judging from the sudden rush of _glee _he could feel through their Gestalt Bond. It was unsettling, and gave him a feeling that one of them would probably die soon. And though he was tempted, he deciding looking back would probably equal his own off-lining, so with a frown he kept his optics forward, but an open comm. on Vortex...just in case,

::Hey Swindle!:: In his defense, he only slightly stumbled forward in surprise when that voice came over the second he opened his comm. ::I was wondering when one of you three idiots would finally open a comm. so I could find out where the Pit you all are.:: Swindle frowned, feeling the need to face-palm for not thinking of it earlier. Especially when Vortex started cackling behind him and Astrotrain let out a very, very _little girl _like shriek that would put _Starscream_ to shame.

::Hey Blast Off.::

The shuttle-former made a noise that Swindle didn't doubt was an amused snort. One of the many the shuttle would likely be making once he rescued them, if he rescued them without crashing. But he shouldn't have any problems, right? After all, he doesn't have a button/tigger/lever happy helicopter in his passenger seat. And, as if on cue, Vortex again cackled and suddenly his short-range comm. crackled to life, showing Astrotrain and cutting off the feed from Blast Off.

::Swindle! Get your crazy-copter brother to calm down before he get's us all _off-lined_!:: Swindle didn't think before looking back, Vortex had _somehow_ climbed onto Astrotrain's shoulders, was sitting with his legs draped over the triple-changers chest. He had one hand gripping his helm, and the other waving in the air. Vortex's upper body was twisted, head turned to the side to see the worm. He was waving it down, laughing, and..._singing_?

The comm. started crackling again. ::Your brother is - ksh- ~There's no escape, I can't waait~ - tell him to get offa - ~With a taste of your lips, I'm on a riiiiide~ - STOP SINGING!::

::~You're toxic, I'm slippin' under~::

"What." Swindle grew a confused look on his faceplate, and finally slid to a stop. He turned to look at the oncoming three. Astrotrain trying to throw Vortex off his shoulder, Vortex laughing and taunting the snake/worm thing. The snake/worm thing taking a snap at them. Swindle stared, frowning. Vortex is insane, Astrotrain is seemingly the sanest out of all three of them yet is currently having a panic attack. And Swindle found he was starting to feel sick from all the swirling emotions trying to take control now that he managed to push away his own panic attack.

::Swindle?:: Blast Off's voice came over the now somewhat silent comm. Swindle looked down. "Blast Off, I think our entire Gestalt is crazy." He said with a sigh.

Blast Off kept quiet for a moment, before snorting. ::...Just now figuring that out, are we? We _were _re-created by _Starscream_.::

"I hate you."

::Love you too, not stay put because I'm about to take a shot at that thing attempting to swallow Astrotrain and Vortex.::

"Okay..."

Swindle slumped back a bit, staring at the sky for Blast Off. A small smile tugged at his lips at the thought of finally getting off this Primus Forsaken rock. As soon as Blast Off shot the creature trying to eat Vortex and Astrotrain...

...Wait...

...What?

* * *

**Authors Notes: **Sorry! This was supposed to be posted last night, but I was busy, forget, and fell asleep! And originally if ended when Swindle said "Hey Blast Off." But I decided to lengthen if when I checked it over just now.

Well, hope you like the chapter. Even thought the entire thing was written, re-written, added onto and edited while I'm sitting here half asleep. ^^;

**Disclaimer: **Transformers does not belong to me, nor to any of it's Characters. Song is "Toxic" by Britney Spears.


	19. Big Bang

_Swindle stood straight, optics flashing as they widened in shock. He turned to look back at the two running mechs, as white static reined their comm.-links. As he looked around he found he couldn't see anything but sand for miles. Nothing else...no one else. He turned, head whipping left to right, searching for his comrades. Nothing, no one. He felt his spark stall for a moment, if that was even possible. Could Energon run cold? _

_Fear._

_::Swindle!:: The golden mech jumped as Astrotrain's voice crackled over his comm. ::GET DOWN!:: _

_Swindle made a confused face at the open comm., and Astrotrain yelled something quick and incoherent. ::I said-:: "-GET DOWN!" He screamed when a weight tackled him from behind, slamming him into the ground and pinning him there. His optics blacked out for a moment, leaving him in darkness. He gulped down air, attempting to stay calm as panic began to hot-wire his circuitry. He finally managed to online him optics, seeing Astrotrain's hand in-front of his face. Panic nearly took over until he noticed the rest of the triple-changer hovering over him._

_"Uhm." He turned onto his back, finding Astrotrain leaning over him, right arm over Swindle's head propping him up, other arm at Swindle's side. He could feel one of Astrotrain's knees bent between his legs, the other was stretched back, pede firmly on the ground in case he needed to move quickly. He chest-plate mere inches from Swindle's. _

_Very, very awkward position. He could hear Vortex cackling over his comm._

_Wait._

_"Where's Vortex?" Swindle all-but shoved the shuttle off as he quickly sat up to look around for the missing Copter. No where to be seen. He looked to Astrotrain, who stared at him with wide optics for a moment, before smiling sheepishly. "Ah...about that..." He shifted back a bit, Swindle stared at him. He shuffled a bit more. "He kinda...got...uhm...eaten?" He smiled sheepishly again, looking at Swindle as the Jeep stared back, face full of shock._

_"You...He..." Swindle twitched, and Astrotrain shuffled back a bit more. "You...YOU LET MY BROTHER GET EATEN?" Swindle screamed, Astrotrain flinched back, backing into a stone. "N-n-...yes?" He tried his best to look innocent, it hadn't been his fault the Copter was crazy. "ARGH!" He couldn't even blink before Swindle pounced him, cursing in Cybertronian as he hit Astrotrain in the head - repeatedly - with his Scatter Blaster. Astrotrain covered his face, apologizing over and over again which only proved to make Swindle hit him harder._

_The blows came to an abrupt halt, Astrotrain let out a mental sigh of relief._

_Until he heard the hum of something powering up, the squeal of a weapon being powered far beyond that of which it should be, just beyond backfiring from the pressure. He uncovered his face and optics to find the barrel of a blaster - Swindle's Scatter Blaster, to be exact - glowing a not-very-comforting shade of bright violet. Not even an inch from his faceplate. Astrotrain looked nervously at Swindle's shadowed faceplate._

_"I hate this planet. I hate these glitches, this war, worms, muck and-" The ground became uneven, rumbling, Swindle nearly loosing his balance and he growled. "And you know what I really, really hate?" The ground behind him shifted, shifting as the large worm again emerged, likely intent on eating them as well, Astrotrain looked up at it, horrified, Swindle didn't spare a glance it's way._

_It hissed._

_"What I hate the most...is-" He spun around, the tip of his scatter blaster grazing Astrotrain's nose, it spun around, making a clicking sound as Swindle pointed the fully - over charged - Scatter Blaster right into the creatures opened jaws. It froze at the unfamiliar feeling in his jaws. "GIANT MECH-EATING WORMS!" He screamed, blaster going off right in the creatures mouth, lighting up it's nearly transparent flesh violet._

_Then..._

"BANG!" Astrotrain yelled, a smile on his faceplate, Swindle, standing to his right, flinched. He had both arms folded up, covered his helm. Mostly the top of it. And Vortex giggled, leaning against Swindle for support. Astrotrain was grinning, excited, like a kid. Vortex had an expression to mimic his. And Swindle looked tired, as if would drop any second now. Blast Off had picked them up after Swindle had taken out the worm, he had circled after it went into the earth again, and failed to see the scene play out. Vortex was fine, just covered in some organic slime, intestines, just about everything else that may have once been inside the worm. Swindle and Astrotrain had a bit on them too. Blast Off, with no need to stay sense he had not witnessed it, went straight to the wash racks.

He had to bring them home, he didn't seem to appreciate what they brought home with them while they had to sit _in _him.

They now stood in the throne room, after being ordered to explain where they had gone, why, and what had taken place by Megatron. Who not sat on his throne, looking a mix between confused and amused. Starscream had a mildly _horrified _expression on his faceplate, where he stood at Megatron's right, arms tucked behind his back.

Finally, seeing no more explanation, and Astrotrain was a bit too hyper to give a proper one anyway, he dismissed them with the wave of a hand. "And yes, Starscream, you can go play "Mother Hen" as the humans call it. I know you'll do it anyways." Megatron added, as Starscream turned to him, mouth slightly open, after the trio left the room. The SIC spared him a glare, before turning and jogging to the door, and exiting the room.

Megatron stared at the door, bemused, and rubbed his optics.

"Swindle, Vortex!" Starscream called, running after the trio as they made their way to the wash room. Astrotrain didn't bother slowing, he wasn't being called for, he kept walking as the other two halted to look at their SIC. Starscream slowed to a stop, and the first thing he did was grab Vortex by the arms, jerking him forward, and looking him over. Vortex made a whining sound, and Starscream gave him a surpicious look. "I'm fine, Starscream!" Vortex grinned, innocently. Starscream narrowed his ruby optics at the mech, before letting him go and snapping around to Swindle, making the half-awake mech jump.

"Mrrm?" Was all Swindle could manage in his tired state. He wanted a large glass an Energon, and some recharge, bad. He was beginning to care less and less if he had organic innards and _outerds_ all over him. That over-powered shot he used to take out that Organic alien had zapped almost all of what was left of his Energy. He didn't doubt he'd probably fall into recharge in the wash racks. And...he didn't even realise he still had his arms covering his pink helm until Starscream reached forward, and lowered them to his chest, where he dropped them to his side.

He paused, looking confused for a moment, before looking sleepily back up at Starscream.

Starscream grabbed him by the arm, lightly, and pulled him forward. "Vortex, you go on to the wash racks and _go see Hook _tomorrow, after you recharge. Swindle's about to fall into recharge standing up, so I'll just let him stay with us tonight." Vortex made a whining sound again, which Swindle barley made out through his tired haze. "That's no fair..." "Maybe next time, Vortex." The copter turned, patting Swindle on the shoulder, smirking, before merrily making his not-the-least-bit-tired way to the wash room.

Poor Astrotrain. Would be stuck in there alone with him now.

Starscream turned Swindle around, and started directing him down the hallways. "Okay, lets' get you washed up, get you some Energon before you crash, and get you into recharge before Megatron orders my presence in the thrown room again."

Swindle made no reply, watching with growing amusement as many various, mumbling blurs passed his line of vision.

* * *

**Authors Notes: **Sorry this is bad. Sorry this is rushed. Sorry this had a TON of plot holes. But I really wanted to get off the planet chapters already. xD I have ideas but they had to be back on Base, and I was running low on muse for the planet scenes anyway, so they started to get worse and worse. And I'll try to make the next chapter better!

**Disclaimer: **Transformers does not belong to me, nor do any of it's Characters.


	20. Far Too Early

Their walk down the corridors was an oddly silent one. It was late, most were in recharge or out on patrol. For some reason, the halls being so empty made Swindle feel a bit...haunted. Despite the fact them being crowded wasn't exactly ever good news for him either. He stumbled back and forth, Starscream's hands on his back, both making him walk and keeping him from falling. The Seeker had a bemused expression as they made their way towards his Quarters. Most mechs would be uneasy or excited about such a thing.

Swindle was pretty much treated like a sparkling by the whole Trine, he didn't have much to look forward to other than possible TC cuddles and treats. Which only really made him feel more like a sparkling. And Skywarp? Skywarp cuddles too. Cuddles of death, anyway. The mech just hugged too tight...even Starscream ran at the sight of Skywarp wanting a hug. It could be amusing, sometimes Skywarp just _needed _a hug.

He'd hug anyone unlucky enough to get near him. Thundercracker, Starscream, Swindle, Onslaught, Vortex, _Brawl_, only Blast Off had managed to go his entire life as a Decepticon without getting a hug. He hadn't gotten one...yet. It only made Skywarp want to hug him more. The crazed Seeker even got Megatron once. Got shot in the aft for it too. Oddly enough it wasn't any serious damage despite being a direct hit. So either Skywarp was about to make a get away and Megatron needed to get a hit quickly, so didn't get to charge his weapon fully. Or he took it easy on the Seeker. Maybe he was going soft.

Maybe he needed a hug, too?

Swindle pushed that thought aside. He smiled when he recalled Skywarp hugging Hook once. Hook shoved a _hook _in Skywarp's left optic. Left it there. Starscream ended up having to fix it. And Skywarp ended up having a blue left optic for a while. They didn't have replacements. They did have an Autobot prisoner, though. Ouch. It kind of surprised them all Starscream done it. Surprised them more that the optic fit. And even more so that Skywarp went back and hugged Hook again afterwords, once the medic replaced his optic with a proper red one.

He didn't learn his lesson that time either. Hook eventually stopped bothering.

No one else could get away with hugging the Constructicon, though.

Scavenger would happily hug Skywarp any time the Seeker wanted. It kind of creeps everyone but the two of them out. TC had once suggested it was a fling or something. Neither really denied it...the rest of the Constructicons did, though.

His smile grew into a grin as he recalled the time Soundwave got too close to a needy-hug Skywarp. Poor TIC never seen it coming. He'd come to give orders to Skywarp from Megatron. No one quite knew why they didn't just use comm.s, Soundwave said Megatron said to tell him in person. That pretty much gave everyone an idea...

Megatron's a prick.

The moment Soundwave uttered the first syllable of the first word, Skywarp turned and pounced the Communications Officer. Rumor says that Skywarp didn't let him go until two hours later. Soundwave had a twitch after that, and still does his best to avoid contact with the violet Seeker. Any Seeker, really. Except Starscream. One, he couldn't if he wanted to. And two, Starscream is probably the last mech that would ever, _ever _willingly hug someone he didn't practically consider family.

Almost everyone was secretly trying to get Starscream to hug him, just to see if the Tape-deck would fry a circuit.

Of course Swindle and his Gestalt pretty much counted as Family to Starscream. He hugged them all the time, so he had to consider them _something _close to family. Even Brawl got occasional Starscream cuddles. Starscream's cuddly when he wants to be. Sometimes when he doesn't want to be. Even Megatron thought so. Seriously. He'd stated it once. Though he wouldn't admit to have ever gotten a Starscream hug or cuddle.

He would always get somewhat angsty after mention of it, actually.

Starscream said he's jealous because he's never gotten a hug form him. Thundercracker...agreed with Starscream. Skywarp...well agreed too. It's the reason he ever even gave Megatron a hug in the first place.

Swindle blinked, shifting his view from the floor to the open halls, he smiled as a Thundercracker and Skywarp appeared from around the far corner, Skywarp waved, Thundercracker was slouched, dragging his pedes behind him. Looking about as awake as Swindle felt. Swindle blinked, and suddenly Skywarp was right in-front of them. He jumped back, pressing into Starscream's hands, the Seeker made a face at Skywarp. "Where are you two going in such a rush?"

Skywarp ignored him in favor of grabbing Swindle, snapping him out of his dazed stupor, and picking the Jeep-former up into a hug. "Aww, our little Swindler's back~" Swindle made a groaning sound as Skywarp hugged him close, and _tight_. Swinging left to right and cooing. Swindle took a moment to wonder why. the pit. did he had all the crazies? Was he a crazy beacon? Just unlucky? Or would this be luck?

Seriously.

Skywarp sat him back down, and the small 'Con stumbled backwards a bit before being secured by Starscream, who quickly snagged him by the shoulders to keep him balanced. Starscream scowled slightly at the grinning Violet. "Where are you two going in such a hurry?" He asked again, frowning at Thundercracker as the sluggish mech _finally _reached them, and took a position of leaning heavily on the still grinning Skywarp, who seemed as awake and as happy as could be.

"We have patrol in a few minutes...or seconds. Or maybe it's always supposed to have been on way..." He shrugged, grabbed Thundercracker, who made a soft mumbled protest at being shifted, and took off down the hall, dragging the blue Seeker with him. "Sorry, see ya later!" He called over his shoulder, before the two disappeared around the corner. Starscream glared at where they had been, and sighed.

"I have work to do...I was going to have you stay with them...damn..." Shifting his weight to his right, and propping Swindle a bit better so the half-asleep mech wouldn't loose balance, he activated his comm.-link. Swindle shifted to look curiously at it, as best he could from his position. A moment passed before Soundwave appeared on the screen, visor slightly dimmed. He made a mumbling sound, that sounded somewhat like a question. But the robotic voice was a bit too...mumbled?

"Soundwave." Starscream greeted, smiling kindly. And suddenly both Soundwave and Swindle were on full alert, staring at Starscream. The Seeker shifted, and pulled Swindle into view of the comm. "You're going to sparkling-sit for me! Thanks!" And with that, before either party could say anything, the comm. was cut by Starscream. Starscream smiled down at Swindle, who tried his best to glare, despite being tired once again.

"'M'not a sparkling..." Swindle managed, leaning against Starscream slightly as he felt himself nearly fall into recharge again. Starscream patted him on his pretty pink helm. "Sure aren't!" He said far-too-happily before grabbing Swindle, and direction him down the hall once again. The walk, again, was silent and uneventful. Starscream would shake Swindle every now and then to keep the smaller 'Con from falling into recharge, and Swindle would wake up, groggy, and stumble again.

Soon enough they were at Soundwave's door. It was...conveniently...not far from Starscream's. Starscream hit the comm. and the door almost instantly opened to reveal a wide-awake Rumble, and groggy Soundwave leaning lightly against the door frame. "Starscream..." Soundwave's tired, robotic voice managed. Starscream grinned, shoved Swindle lightly, getting him to stumble into the door. "He's needs a wash, some Energon, then let him recharge. He shouldn't be any trouble! I have to get back to my duties okaythanksbye see you Rumble!" And with that Starscream was jogging down the hall, leaving two tired, disoriented mechs staring after him, Rumble grinned.

"SLEEPOVER!"

The cassette declared, grabbing Swindle and dragging him into the room. Soundwave paused, looking at where the two youngling had been, and proceeded to groan. "It's too early for this slag." He muttered, shutting the door and stumbling back into the room.

* * *

**Authors Notes: **Soundwave's not a morning person. Especially on one of the oh-so-few mornings where he actually had a chance of getting some recharge. Hehehe, Skywarp is hug needy. I used to have a friend who reminds me somewhat of how I have written out Skywarp in this story, and he is the type of person who gets depressed without physical contact for a while. i.e Hugs

He used to randomly pop out of nowhere and hug me from behind. Dude did it just to scare me, I swear.

I've always figured that, out of the two, it would probably be _Frenzy _who wouldn't be a morning person. I don't know why. It just...I don't know. You would think the name would make me think otherwise. I dunno.

SLEEPOVER! Love me. You shall see a Sleepover chapter next! See how their party goes when Blaze Of Glory updates next!

**Disclaimer: **Transformers does not belong to me, nor do any of it's Characters.


	21. Sleep Over

Swindle was vaguely aware he was, in fact, being dragged across a large, silver-blue room. Blue, red, grey "furniture" covered the room, quite a bit of it appeared to have been tipped over. scratched up, dented even. He stumbled around after the cassette pulling him along, trying his best not to trip over the various objects littering the floor. Empty to half-empty Energon cubes, tools, parts, pieces of Autobot armor, a few low-grade weapons here and there, quite a few seemed to be taken half apart. And perhaps just only halfway pieced together.

Rumble - or was it Frenzy? - dragged him into room separate from the main, and suddenly Swindle, in all his half-awake glory, found himself quick squished between...something. A moment of snickering passed, from the cassette, and quite suddenly Swindle found himself being assaulted by something wet and _cold_. Letting out a distressed shriek, Swindle flailed and stumbled out of space - which, from what he could now make out, appeared to be a cassette sized wash rack. Rumble - or Frenzy? He couldn't tell the little monsters apart at the moment... - shook his blue digit at him. "Now Swin', 'Screamer said to give you a wash." He grinned, shoving the larger mech back towards the rack. "Now wash, before ah pile-drive ya into the floor and do it myself. And Frenzy can guarantee I'll do it. And that I'm not gentle." Swindle made a face at _Rumble_, but stepped under the cleanser again. Shivering as it pelted and soaked him down to the core.

He flicked at the subs beginning to form, and grabbed the cloth offered to him by Rumble, he proceeded to roughly scrub at the mess he currently was, and much to his horror, the cloth simply stuck to his arm, refusing to budge. "Oh, eww." Rumble grinned, fascinated. "Th' slag is that gook?" _Gook_. What an over-used word for this..._gook_. "Mutant, Mars worm guts." The Combaticon frowned, and attempted to pull the cloth off again, to no avail. "Slaggin' worms." Rumble suddenly brightened. "Oh yeah, heard about that from Laserbeak! Mech, I wasn't aware you could be such a bad-aft when ya want ta be!" Swindle tilted his head at the cassette. "I was pissed. And it ate Vortex. And I was _pissed_." Rumble grinned at how much emphasis the jeep put on the fact he was ticked.

His grin formed into a teasing smirk. "I heard you and Astrotrain are suddenly getting alone _quite _well." Swindle glared at him, flustered, but made no response as he - again - tried and failed to pull off the rag. Throwing his hands up in the air, the Combaticon 'argh-ed' and gave up. Standing under the cleanser and letting it get off as much as if could without the cloth. After that, he stomped out, covered from helm to pede in cleaner and suds. Rumble dimmed his optics slightly, smirking. "Whoo Swindle, what a show~" He teased, earning a glare, much to his glee. He turned and started towards the door. "C'mon! To Soundwave! He should know a way to git ya gook free again!" Swindle begrudgingly fallowed, leaving a trail of cleanser.

As they left the Wash room, and walked back into the living room, Swindle stared somewhat shocked, and amused at the figure of Soundwave on the couch. He sat there, legs spread out across the room, arms hanging off the back of the "sofa", and head dropped back, visor dimmed. He looked quite content in his current, sprawled position. It was...somewhat creepy to the Combaticon. Frenzy seemed slightly disturbed by it too, if his expression was any indication.

"Jeez, Soundwave, close your legs! We don't need that view, thank you." He made an expression of disgust, and went ignored by the dark-blue mech. Heck, if he didn't know better, he'd say the TIC spread his legs further. He decided not to think about that, so he glanced around the room instead. Nothing but clutter, did they even have a floor? "So yeah, Swindle has this alien worm gook stuck to him-" Frenzy lifted up Swindle's arm and pointed at the cloth with his free hand. "Any ideas on how ta get it off?" He tugged on the stubborn thing, but it barley budged. Soundwave tilted his head up, and stared down at them through his now brightly lit visor.

"...No." With that, he flopped his head back. Both Rumble and Swindle gave him a half-glare frown.

Rumble shrugged, grabbed Swindle, and dragged him off in yet another direction. "If ya need us we'll be in mine an' Frenzy's room!" Swindle made a sound of disapproval as he was dragged off, and shoved into another room. The new room - which housed Frenzy, sitting in one corner fiddling with a remote of some sort - was somewhat cleaner than the main room, but still littered with random scrap. The walls were covered in random splotched of paint of random colors, graffiti, random hanging pieces of armor or what looked to be painted-over photos. Frenzy spared them a brief glance, before fiddling with the remote again.

Rumble grinned; "Welcome to our room!" He pushed the Jeep in, and ran off to tackle Frenzy and steal the remote form his hand, much to the red-twins irritation. He tossed it into a steel box, and ran back over to Swindle, shutting the door and dragging the Combaticon over and showing him down on one of the near-floor level berths. He sat down without much struggle, and watched tiredly as the blue cassette ran off again, quickly opening and closing the door to disappear before Swindle could utter a word. Frenzy stared at him for a moment, before grinning.

"I gave Blitzwing a nice, hard, kick ta th' head for ya." Tat had the Combaticon grinning. "I owe ya one for that." Frenzy chuckled, nodding in agreement. "Yeah, how about this; what was it he shoved you up in there for, again?" He tilted his head at the golden bot, and Swindle grinned. "A data-pad, I don;t know what's on it, but it was important to him." Frenzy made a sound of acknowledgment. "So, did'ja give it back to 'im?" "Pit no!" Swindle flicked his wrist as he un-suspaced the datapad, materializing it in his hand. "Kept it for myself, swore to him I'd sell it." He twirled it around, and tossed it to the red cassette. "You can have it if you want, I doubt it's worth anything."

Catching it, Frenzy almost immediately activated it, and skimmed through. Swindle glanced to the door, awaiting Rumble would return. A moment of silence passed, and the door opened, revealing said cassette, holding a tray with three large cubes of mild-grade. He handed a cube to Swindle, smiling, and sat beside Frenzy, not bothering to offer the cube Frenzy snatched from the tray and scarfed down. "What'cha lookin' at?" The blue cassette inquired, staring curiously at the glowing data-pad. Frenzy shrugged, scrolling through it, after a moment, he shot forward, nearly gagging on his Energon as he started laughing. "Slag! It's a Journal!" The cassette cackled.

That earned curious stares from the two, who - after a moment to take in the information - jumped at the red cassette and huddled close enough to be able to see the information contained within the data-pad. Cybertronian glyphs, Swindle frowned slightly, he couldn't read them very well, not sense his reactivation here on Earth. They had changed slightly over the Melania he spent imprisoned. Though, it didn't matter, Frenzy seemed intent on reading out loud; "Today I watched Dirge struggle, trying to work up the courage to tell Ramjet off when the idiotic Cone-head let it be known he had intentions of going after _Skywarp_. Apparently, from what the cone-head told me, Ramjet has a little competition going on with the Seeker, though I was spared the details, Skywarp is winning. Ramjet is pissed about it. And wants to just shoot the Seeker. And plans to drag the rest of his team down with him-" Rumble grumbled. "Boooring. Find something _juicy_ to read!" Earning a mild glare from his twin, Frenzy skimmed down the page.

"Today I watched Astrotrain fallow Starscream around like a - as the humans say - "lost puppy". He seemed intent on getting some info from the SIC, but Starscream was less than willing to give it to him. It was slightly depressing how desperate he was for the Seeker's attention." Frenzy made a face, and switched the page, Rumble tilted his head, but said nothing. Swindle could care less, he figured, as he began to fade back into the realm of half-consciousness. Rumble frowned at him. "Drink first. Starscream said wash, feed, bed." He shoved the cube in the Jeep's hand up to his face, and the Combaticon tilted the cube and gulped down a large potion.

Rumble flinched, and it took a second for Swindle to realize why. "Owww..." Groaning, he grabbed his head as the concentrated Energy fueled his systems, and hit his processor _hard_. "Oooh, my head." He rubbed it, and Rumble made a face. "Dude, I just realized something." He glanced up at the cassette. "What?" A grin spread over both faces, which were now equally focused on him. "Yer helm..." Frenzy started. "It's PINK!" Rumble cackled, poking said helm. Swindle frowned at him, and he chuckled. "Sorry." Frenzy elbowed his twin. "Want us to paint it black?" Swindle stared at them, frowning. "I was told we were out of black paint." The twins grinned.

"They are. We aren't." "Yes or no?"

Swindle frowned, and shook his head slightly. "Sure..." Rumble grabbed him by the head and jerked him forward, making it so his forehead was against the cassettes chest-plate. Frenz', get th' paint!" The red cassette was gone and back before Swindle could shutter and optic. "This will be _cold_." Was all he got before a wet, cold substance was poured over the back of his helm, he jerked, but Rumble held him down as Frenzy spread the paint across. "We'll be done in a second, sit still!" "Unless you want me to mess up, 'cause this stuff is kinda permanent!"

Swindle forced himself as stiffly still as possible, and didn't dare to move a muscle.

Primus his head hurt...

* * *

**Authors Notes:: **Yee! Sorry this took so long! I was honestly quite muse dead on this story, but alas, I did not give up on it! Eventually the muse came back! As it is now! I would try to get two up - I still might - but right now I am tired. Hope you enjoy, reviews are love! Please tell me if you notice any mistakes.

**Disclaimer:: **Transformers does not belong to me, nor do it's Characters.


	22. An Everyday Morning

The last thing he could remember was complaining to Rumble about dumping paint on his head without warning, so Swindle was mildly surprised to suddenly be on-lining optics he hadn't realized he'd off-lined. What really got him was the full of purple-blue view he got. It took him a moment to actually adjust enough to try and move, and quite a few minutes to wrench whoever's arms were around his chassis _off_. He sat up, and found he'd apparently fallen into recharge while the twins were painting his helm. If the odd position they were in, the opened bucket of paint, and black stain on Rumble's shoulder was any indication. He was going to have fun trying to wash that dried paint off once he woke.

He found he was quite bemused with the whole situation, as he carefully tried to move without waking the two. It was hard considering they were both on either side of him, and something - be it a leg, arm, or head - was draped over him. He shifted carefully, sliding down instead of leaning over them, off the end of the berth. He stepped slowly onto the floor, pausing every moment to check back on them, once he was sure they were still recharging, he crept from the berth and to the door. Hitting the auto-key and opening, glad they hadn't locked it. He stepped out of the room, and walked right into Soundwave.

The door shut behind him, meaning he had no room to step back, so he stayed pressed against the somewhat startled larger 'Cons chassis until he finally stepped back, nearly causing Swindle to fall forward. As Swindle staggered a bit before regaining his footing, Soundwave materialized a cube and offered it to him. It earned a suspicious look. "Starscream's 'special blend'. He brought it by earlier." Swindle glanced up at Soundwave and frowned. Hearing him talk "normally" - still monotone, though - was kind of..._disturbing_. He took the offered cube, slowly, and stood awkwardly in-front of the twins berth room door, unsure of what to do. Soundwave moved across the room, into another room.

Swindle looked around, uncomfortable with his current surroundings.

"Statement: Can leave when desired." Swindle nearly jumped, turning his head quickly to stare at Soundwave, as he walked out of the room, staring at him through a red visor. A rather sluggish looking Ravage fallowed behind, stopping a few paces from the door to stretch. Swindle swirled his cube slightly, and frowned. Well, he wanted to leave. But he would have to refuel here, or risk getting loosing the ration to someone again. Soundwave shrugged, and walked towards the door, Ravage in line behind. "Request: Wake cassettes before departure." He waved a hand in the Jeeps direction, before keying the door open, and allowing Ravage out before fallowing himself. The door closed behind him.

Well...that was an...interesting farewell. Now alone, from what he could tell, Swindle wondered towards the makeshift sofa, and clambered up on it, sitting with Energon in hand. He glanced down at the bright pink sparkling substance, venting a sigh before sipping it. He hummed in satisfaction at the sweet, candy-like taste. He swirled it again, smiling softly, before taking another, slow sip. Primus, Starscream sure knew how to create his Energon. Low grade or high, Starscream's Energon was known to be _the best _to anyone who'd had the luxury of tasting it. Even Megatron didn't argue with the fact, though he did grumble out once that he didn't quite have a taste for "sweets".

He glanced at the door, taking a large gulp from the cube. He wanted to get out of here before Soundwave returned, even though the TIC had never done anything to him, he still felt irritatingly uncomfortable around him. Finishing his cube as quickly as possible - while still savoring the rare, richly sweet taste he'd longed for not long ago - Swindle hopped down, sub-spaced the cube, and walked towards the Twins door.

It automatically opened when he got close again, and he stepped through, grabbing the nearest object - ironically an empty Energon cube - and chucking it at them. It hit the wall, bounced off, and landed smack dab in the middle of their heads, effectively hitting both in the optics with a corner. The two jerked, sitting up and crying out in unison; "Ouch!". Spinning around, Swindle walked out the door, and made a beeline for the exit. Could have been nicer about waking them up, they did repaint his helm. He mused it for a moment, and shrugged. Too late now. The door auto-opened as it picked up on his presence, and he walked out the room.

Taking a right turn, he started making his way towards his Gestault's shared quarters. No doubt Onslaught wanted to see him, he hadn't in a while, and had probably become worried. Well, that or mad. Swindle hoped he was worried. Not really in the mood to deal with the consequences of the other.

* * *

**Authors Notes: **Sorry this is so late, AGAIN! Sorry it's so short too, I really had little to add onto this chapter, and if I had thought of that sooner, this would have been posted long ago. My apologies! I'll try, yet again, to get an update schedule or something...

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Transformers, nor do I own any of it's characters.


	23. RunIns

He had figured Onslaught would be upset, but being proved right wasn't any less stressing. The moment Swindle had stepped through the door, he had been tackled by Vortex. Mid-fall, a object that looked similar to a human 'frisbee' - only metal, and HUGE - bounced off Vortex's head, busting his visor. And while he struggled to get out from the cursing helicopter and his cracked visor, he found himself staring up at a very, very pissed off Onslaught. Putting on his best smile, he opened his mouth to speak, only to get out little more than a high pitched squeak. Which, if anything, seemed to only make him _angrier_.

"Where were you."

Oh, if only that were a question, meaning he had the option of not answering. But alas, it was not. It was a demand, he could hear it in the pitch, and feel it in his spark. He also had a feeling that if he opted out of answering, he'd end up worse off than poor, visor-busted Vortex. Who had still yet to get off. With a somewhat strangled growl of irritation at Vortex, as the Copter elbowed him in the abdomen, Swindle _somehow _managed to keep up his grin as he spoke; "Well, you see Ons'...when we got back. Starscream dragged me off, and somehow along the way...he ended up deciding for some..._unknown _reason...that it would be a good idea for me to stay with Soundwave and his Cassettes."

The look he gave him - a mix between belief, and irritation - quite possibly scared Swindle more than the glare he had been receiving earlier.

"Next time, call ahead and tell us before you vanish into some random mech's room." Onslaught sighed, and spun around. Walking off. The sudden, loud snickering from Vortex didn't seem to bother him in the slightest. Swindle didn't agree with the Copters humor, however. Giving him a quick, backhanded slap to the visor, and earning a yelp as the grey mech tumbled off, gripping his bleeding visor in 'agony'. "Oooowwwiieee..."

Swindle moved to stand, but paused at the sight of..._something _moving about on Vortex's chest plate. Something white...and slimy...and... "PRIMUS VOTEX!" Scrambling back, Swindle gave his Gestalt Brother a look of utter horror, much to said Brother's confusion. "What?" Glancing around, finding nothing, his expressed confusion only grew. Throwing his arm out, desperately and dramatically pointing to the...atrocity on his chassis. "WHERE DID THAT COME FROM!" His finger pointed straight to the white, and blue, squirming organic. The horrifyingly familiar WORM-like organic.

"Oh, this?" Reaching up, he poked the creature as he spoke, and Swindle could just _sense _the grin behind that mask. "From that planet, DUH!" Watching with glee as the worm curled around his finger, he completely ignored the ever-horrified expression on the smaller mech's faceplate. "...WHY!" "Will you stop yelling? You're scaring it!" Throwing up his arms, Swindle let out a mixture of words and sounds so panicked, scrambled, and blubbered, Vortex couldn't even find it funny. "Get rid of it!" He understood _that_.

Holding the worm close to his chest, almost protectively, Vortex shook his head. "No! It is mine, and I love it!" That did nothing for calming the Jeep former down. "IT'S MOTHER **ATE** YOU!" There was the feeling again, the feeling he was grinning under that mask. "So? He's so cuuute! Lookit that little wormy face!" Vortex, without thinking, shoved the worm right into Swindle's face.

The the Jeep-former let out a shrilly shriek loud enough to make _Unicron _wince.

And he then proceeded to scramble back, knock over a few optics, and sprint out the room faster than Blurr could blink. A look of horror and disgust etched into his features, he ran down the hall as fast as his pedes could carry him. Considering one hurt like Pitfire. Turning a corner, he found himself colliding with someone. Someone sturdy enough to just stand there, perfectly UN-phased, as Swindle was knocked back. Stumbling, tripping, and eventually falling on his aft.

Glancing up, Swindle stared with wide optics at the last mech he had expected to see. He got an equally quizzical look from the triple-changer. Before Swindle could managed to focus his currently scattered mind enough to form a coherent sentence of some sort, he was offered a hand. Giving it a somewhat suspicious look, he hesitantly took the offer, and was pulled to his feet.

"Sorry about that..." Glancing up, he gave the triple-changer a grin. "Astrotrain."

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**Authors Notes:: **Someone mentioned they wanted to see Astrotrain again, so here ya go~ :D

**Disclaimer:: **Transformers does not belong to me, nor do any of it's Characters.


	24. Infestation?

"Ewww! He brought one back?" The look of horror on Astrotrain's face made Swindle feel a little bit better, he couldn't help but smile. Even though he was still quite freaked out about the idea of one of those..._things _living in their shared room! Surely Onslaught wouldn't allow it...had Vortex informed him of what those things were capable of? Had he told him anything about the worms _or _the planet they were on? ...Oh well, one could always inform him later.

Glancing up, he caught sight of a pout from the triple changer. "I was hoping to never have to think or speak of that again...eww." Shuttering, he wrapped his arms around himself. Looking disgusted and disturbed. He gave Swindle a look, an almost pleading one. "You're going to see about making him get rid of the thing right?" Swindle could offer nothing more than a shrug, for he didn't know whether Onslaught would have any intention of listening to his pleas for a while. It seemed to offer no comfort to Astrotrain, who's hands began shaking in a mini-spaz of disgust for the slimy little creatures.

"It took me forever to get the gook off last time, too! I spent three hours in the wash and had to have Breakdown help me! Which was **not fun**!" Swindle stared up at him for a moment, wide-opticed and expressionless. Images ran through Swindle's processor. Astrotrain trying to get Breakdown to help him...in the wash wracks. Breakdown of all mechs, helping him wash off. In all his horrified, antsy, squirmy, paranoid glory.

After a moment, he started cracking up, before he finally broke into a outright laughing fit. Startling poor Astrotrain, who stared at him. His look of bewilderment changed into one of embarrassment after a moment. "Sh-shut up! It's not funny! Breakdown is hard to convince to stay and help!" Primus, if mechs could blush...! Swindle only laughed harder, nearly falling over from it. He instead staggered, bumping right into Astrotrain, who gave him a pouty look of disapproval. Swindle tried to sober up at the look, but failed utterly, and instead leaned on the larger mech to continue his laughing without fear or face-planting the floor.

Astrotrain crossed his arms, but cracked a small smile at his own expense. "...Okay, it's kinda funny now that I think about it. But still!" He poked the smaller, gold and purple mech, who grabbed that very hand for support when the jab nearly knocked him off balance. The large, purple triple-changer started chuckling, before joining in on the laughter. He couldn't deny it was pretty funny from a different perspective. And something about Swindle's laughter was contagious...

"Fluuuuuffy!" The laughter almost immediate halted at the sound of that familiar voice, both heads whipped around to see Vortex walking down the hall, hand cupped to the side of his face, as he called 'Fluffy' and looked around. Both stared at the silver-clad flier, who was nearing them. "Fluffy...?" Astrotrain looked to Swindle in question, and got a look of confusion and a shrug. Both grew wary and inched from the Helicopter as he turned down next to them. He glanced to them;

"Have you seen Fluffy?"

At the bewildered stares, he suddenly made a thumbs up motion at them. "He's the worm!" He bounced a bit, either oblivious or amused by the twin looks of horror. "...You..." Swindle sputtered a bit...optics huge...er than usual. "...You lost the worm?" Astrotrain completed for him, throwing his hands up, looking horrified. Vortex shook his head.

"No! Of course I didn't loose her! She went out for a walk!" He flicked his rotors at them, acting offended, and strode off down the hall. Calling out for his pet worm.

Swindle sputtered, and shook, and whipped around to face Astrotrain. "He lost it! He lost the slaggin' thing and now it's slithering around in here somewhere and probably multiplying and getting bigger and it's going to east us all and it's offspring are gonna crawl into our armor as we sleep and mess with our wiring and- and- AHHHHHHHH!" Throwing his hands into the air, Swindle sprinted off in the opposite direction of Vortex, screaming all the way.

Astrotrain stood there a moment, kinda shocked and confused at what just happened. After a moment, he tilted his head to the direction Swindle had run off in...

And quickly followed.

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**Authors Notes:: **Ahh, I'm sorry this chapter is kinda suck-ish and short! But I promise you're gonna love the next one! ;D

Thank you_ Kangaroone_ for pointing out my spelling error! I fixed it, and appreciate you letting me know. :D

Thank you _Krazi-1 _for pointing out an error! I fixed it as well! _I really need to re-read better..._

**Disclaimer:: **Transformers does not belong to me, nor do any of it's Characters.


	25. Chicken Run

Swindle fled down the hallways as quickly as his legs - one still giving him a bit trouble in his attempts at moving in a fluid motion - could carry him. He'd be _damned _if he was going to sit still and let one of those... those... _parasites _on him again. The creepy little slime snakes! Vortex just _had_ to bring one home didn't he. Of _course _he did. Of course! It's Vortex! His goal in life - even if sometimes unintentional - was to ruin everyone else's happiness with his... his _ignorance_. And of course, when he decided to choose a pet. It _had _to be a _**worm**__. _One had _eaten _Vortex! And of course, that probably just pushed him into wanting one as a pet even more. Damn Vortex and his... weird.

Astrotrain followed behind at a distance, calling out to get Swindle's attention and being duly _ignored_. While Swindle held no doubt Astrotrain was just as panicked about this situation, he had no intentions of stopping to talk. Nope, not now. He had planned on going to see Onslaught anyway, but now he had a 'bone to pick'. A worm bone. ...Do worms have bones? Oh, what did it matter. No. No it didn't. Not in the slightest.

"Swindle! Will you stop running? I'm not as... _aerodynamic _as you one the ground!" Glancing back at the triple-changer, Swindle watched as he stumbled around corners, and the occasion random passerby in the hall, struggling to keep up. he felt sorry for him for a second there, but decided that the inevitable infestation was more important than possibly being fallen on. Turning his head back forward, he let out a yelp and clumsily stumbled around a slightly hungover Motormaster. The taller mech barley spared him a glance as he staggered on down the hall. Unwary of the other mech heading right for him as well.

Swindle winced as the sound of their crash echoed down the halls, but didn't slow his steps. He was currently a mech on a mission, and he didn't plan on stopping for _anyone _until he got to Onslaught to talk about Vortex's newest addition to the team.

Turning his last corner, Swindle slowed to a jog, then walk, then stopped at the door to their shared room. Quickly keying it open, and walking in, he glanced around with searching optics. Brawl was lying sprawled across the couch, asleep on his stomach. With Onslaught sitting on his lower back, datapad in hand. Taking a moment to... _stare _at the unusual scene, Swindle walked across the room. Not entirely sure if they had fought and Onslaught solved it by sitting on him... or if Brawl had passe doubt on the couch and Onslaught couldn't managed to shove his fat aft off the couch. Knowing those two it could be either. ...Or both.

"Swindle." The jeep jumped, having spaced out too far in through before the deep voice cut through them like a knife. "I see you finally decided to join us." Those were his words. But his tone spoke an entirely different sentence of; "I'm pissed off at you. You better have a good excuse."

"...Well." Swindle glanced to the side, nervously. Wow, ranting at Onslaught was a bit harder than he remembered it being. Of course, that could be the fact he was sitting on one teammate already. For unknown reasoning. The last thing Swindle wanted was to end up dieing from being smothered or crushed by Onslaught's aft. "Uhm... sorry. I ended up staying with Soundwave because... Starscream shoved me off on him for some reason. Then when I woke up I kind of got sidetracked." Giving a nervous smile, Swindle watched as Onslaught lowered his datapad, and gave him a look. One optic ridge raised, his mouth in a fine line. He didn't believe him.

Damn.

"I'm not lying!" Crossing his arms with a huff, he turned his nose towards the ceiling. "But believe what you want." Onslaught had a very unamused look on his face, he lowered his datapad and stood up. And the door to their room slid open not a second after, Vortex stepped in, held his hands up and cupped around his mouth, and called out as loud as his voice would allow; "Fluff~y!" Swindle visibly cringed at the sound, Onslaught looked at the Helicopter. And inquisitive look on his face plates. "Vortex." He vented a sigh. "What are you doing."

The masked face of the copter snapped to look at Onslaught, and you could just _feel _the grin under his mask yet again. "Looking for my Fluffy!" It stated, like it was a well known, obvious fact. It just got an irritated sigh from Onslaught, and a very stern demand for an explanation. In which Vortex just cackled.

And thus, Swindle remembered why he had _ran _all the way here in the first place. "Onslaught!" Four pair of visor-hidden optics turned to look at Swindle. "Vortex adopted a creepy worm and then he let it out on base and now it's going to infest us all and eat us from the inside out!" An accusing finger was thrown to point in Vortex's direction, and helicopter threw his hands to his chest and gasped dramatically. "Swindle! Don't _say_ such things about my poor Fluffy! She's nothing but a sweetheart!" He sounded _offended_. Swindle let out an irritated growl. "Yeah, sweet enough to crawl under our armor and turn into a slimy, sticky mess of glue they we'll never be able to completely get off!" Onslaught tilted his head.

"Eww, that sounds nasty..." Everyone looked at the source of that statement, Brawl, who was now sitting halfway up and stretching out his arms. Swindle huffed. "It _is_! Astrotrain and I had to take off our armor to get it all out! Then we had to _rewash_ afterwords! And I _still_ think I have some stuck under my armor, and in my joins." Swindle shivered at the thought. Brawl let out a noise of disgust. Onslaught was mostly indifferent. Vortex just carried on cackling again.

Onslaught vented another, exhausted sigh, and looked at Vortex. "Vortex, get rid of your..." Onslaught waved his end carelessly at the helicopter. "Whatever it is." Vortex sagged, rotors twitching downward as he whined. "But Onslau~ght!" Annoyed, Onslaught held up his hand, rubbing his forehead with the other. "Don't 'but' me, Vortex. Get rid of it. Now." Vortex pouted, and gave Swindle a dirty look for spoiling his fun. Swindle just stuck his tongue out at him.

Spinning around, Vortex walked out to finish searching for his worm, mumbling and whining about having to get rid of his new pet. Venting a sigh, Swindle walked over and plopped down on Brawl's legs. For the tank had gone back to lazily sprawling over the couch. Brawl looked down at him, Swindle ignored him in favor of staring at the ground. Trying to remember if he had anything to get done today. After a moment of Brawl staring, Swindle finally decided to humor him and looked at the broadly grinning mech.

"What?" He asked, and the tank only grinned broader. "Astrotrain saw you without your armor~" He cackled. Swindle sputtered, flailing a bit, and hit him in the hip. "Shut up!" Brawl only cackled louder at Swindle's reaction, dropping his head back. Swindle crossed his arms, and pouted. Across the room, Onslaught vented another sigh as he sat down at his desk, shaking his head as the two across the room began to bicker and tease. Grabbing a new datapad from a small pile to the side of his desk, he went back to reading.

Meanwhile; Vortex had gone back to searching for his new pet, not really hoping to find it sense the sooner he found it, the sooner he'd have to get rid of it. And the sooner his fun would end. He hadn't been walking long before he turned a corner and ran - quite literally - right into a very fretful Astrotrain. Which is where he now stood, listening to the triple-changer complain to him about adopting disgusting creatures, midgets refusing to slow down, and something about grumpy drunks.

"Seriously, you freaked Swindle out so much he ignored me entirely in his panicked fleeing! I ended up running right into Motomaster trying to catch up with him." The purple and gold mech gave him a glare, which Vortex ignored entirely. "Well, you two got your way. Onslaught is making me get rid of her. Once I _find_ her." Vortex crossed his arms, and sulked. Astrotrain just gave him a look of exasperation. "Well, we should probably go find it-" Both jumped, hands flying up to cover their audios as a shrill scream echoed down the halls. Loud enough to make your audios _bleed_, and it was followed by high pitched screeching about _'moving organic goo monster in my cockpit' _in a voice they knew all too well.

"Well. It seems Starscream solved that problem for us!" Vortex said a little too cheerfully, before spinning around on his heel and skipping off down the hall. Atsrotrain stood, contemplating the situation, and decided he really didn't give a damn. Turning on his own heel, he walked off in the opposite direction. Swindle could wait. And getting as far away from that slime snake as possible wasn't such a bad idea either...

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**Author's Notes: **Sorry this took so long! I've been having problem writing or drawing anything for a while now, bad case of muse block. This chapter was also giving me a bit of difficulty, it ended up not coming out how I had originally planned it, sorry if it's disappointing... Hope it's acceptable.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Transformers nor do I own any of it's characters.


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